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Google Petitions FCC Over Verizon's Use of Wireless Spectrum

Search giant wants telecom to commit to truly 'open' network

By Martin H. Bosworth
ConsumerAffairs.Com

May 5, 2008 

According to Google's lawyers, the petition was submitted "for the limited purpose of ensuring that, immediately upon grant of Verizon's...licenses, all parties sharing an interest in the promise of open networks also have a common understanding regarding Verizon's compliance with at least one fundamental aspect of the license conditions."

Google put up a bid of $4.6 billion in the auction in order to trigger the "open access requirement" that any device from any manufacturer could be used on the network, and told the FCC in its petition that Verizon may be attempting to make an end run around the rule.

"Verizon believes it may force customers who want to access the open platform using a device not purchased from Verizon to go through 'Door No. 1,' while allowing customers who obtain their device from Verizon access through 'Door No. 2,'" wrote Google's telecom counsel Richard Whitt.

Whitt referred to the "two-tiered" plan for Verizon's networks, where customers who bought phones from Verizon would not be able to use applications built for phones using the new network.

"In short, the rule requires openness for 'Any Applications, Any Devices' – not 'Any Applications, Except on Verizon Devices,' as Verizon would interpret it," Google said. "Verizon is not free to self-define the rule to exclude any and all Verizon devices."

Cynthia Brumfield of technology blog IP Democracy reported that Verizon Wireless claimed Google's complaint had "no legal standing."

Wireless War

The tug-of-war between Google and Verizon over the wireless spectrum originally centered over the possibility that it could be used to build a new wireless broadband network to compete with existing cable and telecom companies. Telecoms such as Verizon and AT&T wanted the spectrum for their own purposes, but consumer and technology advocates urged Google to bid in the auction in order to force the other players' hands.

Google agreed to bid in the auction, but only if the FCC agreed to set a series of requirements for the network's usage, including the open access requirement. The FCC passed a set of compromise rules that did not meet all of Google's requirements, but the search company chose to bid anyway.

Verizon bitterly opposed the open access conditions for the auction, even suing the FCC at one point to get the conditions overturned, but it later withdrew its petition. Verizon then did an about-face and claimed it would open its network to all devices, but the "two-tiered" plan it adopted led to Google's challenge.

FCC chairman Kevin Martin, notorious for his telecom-friendly policy decisions, announced after the auction that the success of the auction should forestall any other regulation mandating open networks, and dismissed a petition by computer phone service Skype to make networks compatible with all devices.

Industry insiders speculated that Google's true motive was not to win the auction, but only to ensure that it could get its new mobile phone operating system, Android, available on all networks.

Google is a prime mover behind the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of wireless companies and manufacturers who have agreed to support the development and usage of Android on their devices.

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