“Bidders in the FCC’s 700 MHz auction were moving the nationwide C-Block toward the $4.6 billion reserve price Tuesday as the commission conducted the fourth day of the spectrum auction,” W. David Gardner reports for InformationWeek.
“The reserve price is important because if it’s met, it will trigger the development of an open wireless infrastructure in which consumers will be able to use a wider variety of devices and services,” Gardner reports.
“The bidding is secret, but large firms like Google, AT&T, and Verizon are considered the most likely bidders for the nationwide C-Block,” Gardner reports. “Exactly which companies are bidding in secret is still unknown, although the betting is that Google is involved. However, some don’t believe that Google actually wants to set up its own wireless network.”
“At the close of Monday’s auctions, the C-Block had hit $3.42 billion — up $1.27 billion from earlier bids and on pace to reach the $4.6 billion reserve price by the end of Wednesday,” Gardner reports.
Full article here.
I need to get in my bid quick!
Hey, count me in!
What is this spectrum? What’s the goal? What the benefits?
Easy explanations, please !
Hopefully Apple, Inc. set up a company to fly under the radar and bid for the spectrum. Imagine surfing, buying music and renting/buying movies, and talking on the iPhone via the Apple Network!
Would Apple secretly want to become their own provider for the iPhone?? Could they secretly be amongst the bidders??
I doubt it, but it is an interesting thought…keep in mind they had a version of OS X running on Intel since its origination?
I just raised the bar and bid 6 million.
Google and Apple go into this together.
I am setting up a tin cup and string network.
Bidding starts now…$10 per node minimum bid.
What is this spectrum? What’s the goal? What the benefits?
…it will trigger the development of an open wireless infrastructure in which consumers will be able to use a wider variety of devices and services…
Think MacBook Air online everywhere.
(which will be needed for a device like that one)
Wouldn’t it be a SHOCK IF APPLE BOUGHT THE WHOLE SHEBANG?
Steve Jobs says “hold on”, guess now we know what he is talking about.
HOLD ON!!!
I don’t believe that this is an “all or nothing” auction. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that the auction is for individual shares of the spectrum. If the auction results in enough bids for the total to be sold at or above the reserve, the transaction(s) will be completed. There could be a number of winning bids, and there is room for competition.
I could be completely wrong about that though.
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I’m champing at the bid.
“Google and Apple go into this together.” to late the bidders had o register and they had to say if they were on there own on in conjunction, google is alone
I don’t believe that this is an “all or nothing” auction. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that the auction is for individual shares of the spectrum. If the auction results in enough bids for the total to be sold at or above the reserve, the transaction(s) will be completed. I believe there could be a number of winning bids, and there is room for competition.
Of course though,I could be completely wrong about that.
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Holy double posts Batman!
I hope they will accept pennies.
Heh: I’m champing at the bid.
Hilarious!
I would have loved for Apple to bid some of their $18B on this with Google. With the current economic climate, it looks like the bidding might only be 1/3rd as high as people were predicting before it started.
To the earlier query about the spectrum, my understanding is this is the spectrum that the FCC is getting back from analog TV, when it switches to digital next year. It’s particularly good, because its frequency, 700Mhz, allows for wider coverage with fewer towers. Remember the other wireless spectrums are 800, 900,1850 and 1900 or something like that. Just like your old TV, you can pick up the 700Mhz signals from miles away. Heck, my cheap $10 UHF circle antenna picked up a channel from 50 miles away using my EyeTV 500
While Apple may not jump in with a bid, they could certainly make use of the space once its open to market competition. Imagine Skype on an iPod Touch.
Google championed the FCC to make a heavy slice of the spectrum available to the open-carrier markets which would allow consumers to buy and use just about any phone in the space.
Unlike Verizon or any of the other telcoms who, if they won, would take their share of the spectrum and lock it in a vault to keep it out of the hands of the free market. They wouldn’t know what to do with the space anyway.
…my understanding is this is the spectrum that the FCC is getting back from analog TV, when it switches to digital next year…
And everyone who still has a analog TV will all of a sudden get 24 hour a day commercial broadcasts from the Apple Channel!!
“Hi, I’m a Mac and this is a PC”
i bid fiddy cent…
During Apple’s conference call, Apple executives described the iPod touch as a potentially the “first mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform, running all kinds of mobile applications”. Hummm wonder if this auction has anything to do with it?
Old Mac Man…
At least get the quote right…
“Hi, I’m a Mac” “and I’m a PC”
GoogleTalk+GrandCentral+iPod Touch 2.0+700MHz
game over.
“google is alone”
Of course Google is alone. Think about this for more than 2 seconds, please. Does Apple want to be identified in this auction if they have a secret product ready should they win? Or if they have plans to integrate all their products onto a new wireless product, should they win? Of course not. Firstly, they always announce finished products, not ones where the details are still being worked out. Secondly, if they did announce that they were intending to bid everyone would speculate as to what that product could be, perhaps driving up expectations, similarly to Macworld. Apple does not want this, especially with the state that their stock is in right now.
So what do they do? Perhaps Apple agrees with Google, in advance, that if Google were to win the auction, that Apple would kick in a few dollars to “license” the spectrum from Google. In effect, financing a portion of the purchase by Google.
The question is, does Google need Apple’s help to successfully bid? Good question. Probably not, but I’m sure they might want the help in any case. And Apple and Google are very friendly to each other, carrying similar philosophies. I could definitely see a collaboration on future wireless technologies between them.
In conclusion, just because Apple’s name is not on the bidding card does not mean that they don’t have a hand in this thing.
–mAc
MBA (and/or iPhone, iPod touch) + 700MHz chip for WiFi everywhere.
The possibilities…