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There’s an interesting article over at Trading Markets which discusses the implications of the open-access C block of the 700 MHz spectrum on the iPhone. It actually quotes Greg Sterling, who I had the pleasure of speaking to regarding mobile advertising. It’s something I certainly can’t do justice by summing up in this space. So I definitely suggest you go check out what Greg and others have to say about exclusivity and open-access. But for the time being, I’m going to add my own thoughts to this debate.

It’s pretty much assumed that Verizon has the leading bid for the 700 MHz spectrum. This is because 1) Google has all but said they’re out, and 2) We haven’t seen the spectrum being bid up. If AT&T wanted a piece of it, it would make sense for them and Verizon to continue pushing up the bid. But it’s been rather stagnant since it crossed the $4.6 billion reserve mark.

Then you have reports that AT&T is bidding on smaller regional licenses to fill out the 700 MHz spectrum it acquired from Aloha Partners. So in all likelihood, Verizon will be the company providing open access on the 700 MHz spectrum. Since the rules dictate that this is open to any device, well, the iPhone is certainly the first thing to come to mind.

Yes, there are compatibility issues, not to mention the five-year exclusive deal between AT&T and Apple. But if those issues are surmountable, we could see the iPhone in more ubiquity come 2009.

However…

Everyone interviewed in the article kind of danced around this issue, so I’d like to come out and say it. The open-access provision could, and likely will, provide us with a phone that is better than the iPhone. Actually, I’d bank on several such devices. Remember, we’re currently limited by what the cell phone carriers will let hit the market. But with open-access, we’ll see a number of devices that would have been shut out in prior times.

So yes, there will be much clamoring for the iPhone once we see a more open cell phone landscape. But I’m way more interested to see if developers can come up with something even better.

[Trading Markets]

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