CTIA blasts Google spectrum pitch

• By Patrick Marshall
• Jul 24, 2007

CTIA, the organization that represents the international wireless telecommunications industry, has come out swinging against Google's proposal to put conditions on the upcoming auction of 700 MHz bandwidth.

In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, the organization charged that 'the veil has been lifted' on Google's attempts to put restrictions on the spectrum that will be in its favor.

Google announced last week that it was willing to bid at least $4.6 billion in the upcoming 700 MHz auction, but only if certain conditions requiring open access were placed on the spectrum. Critics, including CTIA, have charged that Google is actually more interested in securing open-access requirements on the spectrum than in actually winning the license itself.

'If Google is willing to commit almost $5 billion for spectrum that it wants encumbered with various requirements, then let it win that spectrum in a competitive auction and choose that business model,' reads the CTIA letter. 'Google and its allies, with their collective market capitalization approaching half a trillion dollars, don't need a government handout at taxpayers' expense. The competitive wireless industry welcomes all new entrants, but no company should be able to buy a custom-fit government regulation that suits their particular business plan. Consumers should decide if they're right, not the federal government.'

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