Posted by Chris Sacca, Head of Special Initiatives (Cross-posted to the Official Google Blog ) announced today that we are applying to participate in the auction.on our blogs and spoken publicly about our plans for the auction, unfortunately you're not going to hear from us about this topic for awhile, and we want to explain why.anti-collusion rules , which prevent participants in the auction from discussing their bidding strategy with each other.December 3: By Monday, would-be applicants must file their applications to participate in the auction (FCC Form 175), which remain confidential until the FCC makes them available.Mid-December : Once all the applications have been fully reviewed, the FCC will release a public list of eligible bidders in the auction. Each bidder must then make a monetary deposit no later than December 28, depending on which licenses they plan to bid on. The more spectrum blocks an applicant is deemed eligible to bid on, the greater the amount they must deposit.January 24, 2008 : The auction begins, with each bidder using an electronic bidding process. Since this auction is anonymous (a rule that we think makes the auction more competitive and therefore better for consumers), the FCC will not publicly identify which parties have made which bid until after the auction is over.Bidding rounds: The auction bidding occurs in stages established by the FCC, with the likely number of rounds per day increasing as bidding activity decreases. The FCC announces results at the end of each round, including the highest bid at that point, the minimum acceptable bid for the following round, and the amounts of all bids placed during the round. The FCC does not disclose bidders' names, and bidders are not allowed to disclose publicly whether they are still in the running or not.Auction end: The auction will end when there are no new bids and all the spectrum blocks have been sold (many experts believe this auction could last until March 2008). If the reserve price of any spectrum block is not met, the FCC will conduct a re-auction of that block. Following the end of the auction, the FCC announces which bidders have secured licenses to which pieces of spectrum and requires winning bidders to submit the balance of the payments for the licenses.this page on the FCC's website or Google News . In the meantime, my lips will be sealed (something, frankly, that I'm not used to).
Thank you. Basically every U.S. consumer watching this saga hopes that you guys will win. Best of luck!
ReplyDeleteif this story was in fact leaked by Google to WSJ - perhaps you should consider other sources.
ReplyDeleteWSJ is subscription based, so most will only get a paragraph.
WSJ is usually first with every major Google related leak - please consider your readers who do not have subscriptions.
Bidding on this seems like a no-lose proposition for Google, since even if you don't win the auction, by forcing the price to be at least $4.6B, you'll still weaken the walled gardens significantly because of the new, open spectrum, which is good for net neutrality, which is good for Google.
ReplyDeleteBut...is it really "no lose", as in, could an Evil Telco, e.g.:
a) overbid to make sure they get the spectrum. What's an extra $5B when you have the amount of cash that an AT&T has on hand, and nothing else to really spend it on?
and then
b) "bury" the spectrum, i.e. take 5 years to roll out a uselessly buggy version 1.0 and then another 5 to roll out 1.1, and then drag the ensuing "you have to live up to the deal" litigation out another 10 years as the FCC, Google and company try to force the winner to live up to the deal
?
What's the legal reality? Significant precedents?
Nice post, can I bet on the auction in Vegas?
I sure hope Google wins the bid and see their wireless service develop to give us the consumer more choices and lower prices on wireless service or even free in exchange of ad viewing, which there are everywhere already. bid is up to 12billion 01/30/08
ReplyDelete