The NY Times has a really interesting article detailing the strategy of Google executives bidding on wireless spectrum in the recent FCC auction.
Google’s legacy from this historic auction is that it helped ensure that a portion of the spectrum purchased would be subject to specific requirements of openness. The “C Block” of spectrum that the FCC will require be managed under the tenants of openness was ultimately won by Verizon Wireless.
Even though Google didn’t “win” the auction for the C Block outright, there are those that believe that their strategy of opening up the world of wireless communication may have been served nonetheless:
“If Google had won a license, there was only downside risk for them,” said Gregory L. Rosston, a former F.C.C. official and senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. “Now they can just spend $1 million a year on a law firm to ensure Verizon lives up to the openness requirements.”