Google Nervous About Verizon's Open Access

Ian Lamont writes "Google is so worried about Verizon Wireless's commitment to open access using the 700Mhz spectrum that it has asked the FCC to get a pledge from Verizon that the carrier will honor the FCC's open-access conditions before the FCC sells it the band. Verizon won the auction for the nationwide C block of the 700MHz spectrum, but Google points to Verizon's alleged attempts to abandon the conditions, including a filing with the FCC which said the commission 'could not force the C block winner to allow all applications on the network.' Could this be another expanding front in the Net Neutrality battle, or is it time for the carriers to accept the fact that Net Neutrality is essentially a done deal, and carriers need to prepare for the next battle — developing software and services to run on open networks?" The IP Democracy blog has Google's filing (PDF) and the following comment from Verizon: "Google's filing has no legal standing."

The FCC is past its usefulness

[jnadke]

The FCC doesn't know jack anymore.

Initially they were saying they wouldn't get the expected $4.7 billion in the auction. Instead, it got up to that amount on local regional licenses alone. The C block had two options, a regional option or a carrier could buy rights to the whole nation, whichever was bid higher would be the result.

If the FCC cared about the interests of the consumers, they would have opened up the C-block auction to non-incumbents only. This would have forced carriers to expand to areas they don't already cover, and increase competition.

Cross your fingers for whitespace devices.

Re:Can somone explain this?

[Coopjust]

In a nutshell, Google is saying that, based on statements that Verizon has given, that they will not really follow the open access provisions that Verizon agreed to when they made the bid. Google wants the FCC to make Verizon firmly and explicitly pledge that they will follow said open access provisions before performing the final, actual sale of the spectrum.

Re:Round 1.....

[AvitarX]

Didn't the (semi) open spectrum cost billions less than the closed spectrum?

Taking that discount and not following through is what sounds like a sucker punch to me.

Re:Round 1.....

[sammy baby]

Exactly. Also - this is likely to be exactly what Google will argue gives them legal standing. From their comments after the auction [blogspot.com]:

You may remember that as the FCC was setting rules for the auction last summer, we urged the Commission to adopt four openness conditions. Further, we vowed to bid at least $4.6 billion in the auction if the Commission adopted all four rules. Even though the FCC ultimately agreed to only two of the conditions, which nullified our original pledge, we still believed it was important to demonstrate through action our commitment to a more open wireless world.

We're glad that we did... In turn, [raising the bid] helped increase the revenues raised for the U.S. Treasury, while making sure that the openness conditions would be applied to the ultimate licensee.

(emphasis mine)