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Google just committed to spend $4.6B on spectrum licenses auctioned by the FCC if they attach conditions on openness in the bidding process. Susan Crawford has the details on what this means. This is a big deal, and I'll try to explain in simple terms.
Right now, our public airwaves are controlled by Sprint, Verizon, ATT, and T-Mobile. You can't do anything if you don't go through those four companies, which leads to crappy service, early termination fees, high costs, low competition, and locked our entrepreneurs. The FCC is set to auction a huge chunk of our public airwaves this summer, and is trying to figure out what conditions to attach the sale. Public interest advocates have been saying that a series of open rules, which allow for innovation on these networks by outside groups (either phone makers or wireless entrepreneurs), need to be a condition of the auction. Right-wingers have been arguing that this will reduce the value of the auctioned spectrum, which means that the government won't bring in enough money for what they are auctioning off if they attach these open conditions to the spectrum. In other words, AT&T said to Google, put up or shut up.
And Google just put up. They said, well, we'll bid a minimum of $4.6B for an open public airwaves. The FCC can now make rules on open access without worrying about receiving cash from the sale, since the cash is there.
All of this follows a reversal of AT&T's position on open access. After FCC Chairman Kevin Martin made moves for an 'open access lite' in response to our pressure and Ed Markey, Chip Pickering, and John Dingell, AT&T threatened to sue the FCC. A few days later, chief AT&T lobbyist Jim Cicconi denied it had ever considered opposing Martin's plan.
This has been a huge few months in the net neutrality and public airwaves fight. It's hard to understate the progress we've made towards an open and universal internet. But this is also a model for a new political coalition. As Crawford notes, Google is going to make a lot of money here, seeking to create a dynamic auction system for spectrum much as it does for advertising. That's a new business model, and one that is both very exciting and a potentially very important driver for innovation in our economy.
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