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Apple "eyes US wireless auction"
1:20PM
Citing two unnamed sources, the website says that the company has discussed joining the 16 January sale of the 700MHz spectrum that will be free once terrestrial TV broadcasters close down their analogue signals in 2009.
But those discussions are thought to be erring on the side of caution. Not because of the money - Apple is cash rich to the tune of $14 billion - but because of the logistics.
'The risk for Apple is in entering the generally low-margin, hardscrabble world of running a massive-scale network," BusinessWeek reports. "Rather than focus all of Apple's entrepreneurial instincts on creating the next innovative gizmo, the company would be on the hook for the massive operational headaches that go with provisioning traffic, activating new subscribers, and fielding their angry calls when service glitches occur."
A number of leading companies are expected to compete for the spectrum which will provide over-the-air speeds that are much faster than current mobile networks. Google signalled its interest
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Google has been joined by Intel, Ebay's Skype and Yahoo! in the Coalition for 4G in America which wants the FCC to force operators that win the auction to sell bandwidth on a wholesale basis to any company that wishes to use it. In other words, if AT&T, for example, wins part of the spectrum, it would be forced to resell it to all-comers rather than reserve the bandwidth for its own phones, such as Apple's iPhone, and data services.
Google says this would be to the detriment of consumers.
"In short, when Americans can use the software and handsets of their choice, over open and competitive networks, they win," as Google CEO Eric Scmidt put it, when he committed at least $4.6 billion to the auction if the rules are changed.
But established mobile operators such as AT&T are wary of Google's apparent altruism, suggesting that it is using its large cash reserves to make the auction work in its favour and exclude less wealthy bidders, possibly in order to launch its long-rumoured "gPhone".
The FCC has yet to decide whether to make all or some of the changes that Google has demanded, though it has indicated that acution winners will be required to provide a "more open" platform.
For Apple, owning its own network would mean that it would no longer have to share iPhone revenues with AT&T. According to one former Apple executive, that would fit with CEO Steve Jobs' thinking.
"Apple is the most anti-carrier company there is," the anonymous former Apple executive told BusinessWeek "They're probably already frustrated with AT&T. If they put a few billion behind this, they could build a kick-ass network."
