Google et al. Want 700 MHz Auction Opened Up

The 700 MHz spectrum could give birth to the much-anticipated third pipe, but phone and cable lobbyists are currently pressuring the FCC to sell companies like AT&T and Verizon our airwaves — in a flawed auction process — so they can hoard this valuable spectrum and stifle competitive alternatives to their networks. Google and other would-be providers are not taking it lying down. They want the FCC to mandate that whoever wins the auction be required to sell access to those airwaves, at wholesale prices, to anyone wanting to provide broadband Internet service. They also want anonymous auctions to prevent the giant incumbents from manipulating the results against small players (as they have done in the past).

Re:Hmm...

[CrazyJim1]

What is this third pipe? What are the other two?

Well one's normally referred as a tube.

Re:Hmm...

[aichpvee]

How does a tube differ from a pipe? And what's the third one called? Is it a straw? I hope it's a bendy straw! I always loved those as a kid.

Re:Surely.....

[ajanp]

Google TiSP... amazing that they found a way to let you use the "third-pipe" to deliver broadband access to your home months before the competition. http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/ 01/1331238 [slashdot.org]

Third pipe

[Mr. Underbridge]

...the much-anticipated third pipe...

Yeah, I've been trying to get my wife to go for that for a while, but she's afraid of getting Santorum all over the place.

Re:Hmm...

[Poltras]

No the other two would be my mouth and my a... uh that other tube.

Re:Hmm...

[MrNiceguy_KS]

Technically, those are just opposite ends of the same tube.