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It didn’t take long for the nation’s No. 2 wireless carrier to respond to accusations by Google. The Internet giant, which was essentially Verizon’s only competition for the C Block of the 700 MHz auction — even though Google was a token participant — claims that Verizon plans to ignore the open access provision attached to that block. Google wants the deal blocked until Verizon promises to completely uphold the agreement. Verizon responded yesterday, and were economical with their words.

Read the rest of Verizon responds to Google’s accusations…

While there’s been much talk lately about what happened in the 700 MHz auction, the parts about the vacant D-Block have been relegated to back page status. Apparently, the benefits of creating a public safety network isn’t sexy enough to make headlines. The original idea was to have the winner of the D-Block spectrum help public safety officials build out a comprehensive communications network. Their reward would be the commercialization of any remaining spectrum. Apparently, that wasn’t incentive enough. While there was some early action in D-Block bidding, it never met the reserve price. In questioning the auction, Congress is wondering what it can do to facilitate the sale of this spectrum.
Read the rest of What to do with the D-Block?…

So what’s going to come of the massive blocks of 700 MHz spectrum bought up by AT&T and Verizon? I, among many other in the industry, tried to find that out during CTIA last week. But the FCC would have none of it. Their anti-collusion rules, which prevent participants from talking about the auction, expired just after the show ended. So the big boys could make announcements on their own terms. The good news: Both AT&T and Verizon plan to use the spectrum to launch their high-speed 4G networks. The bad news: It’s going to be a while before we see anything.
Read the rest of Verizon, AT&T announce 4G intentions…

Here’s something I didn’t know before talking to a few industry folk at CTIA: The anti-collusion rules set in place by the FCC expired right after the show ended. Clearly, this was to cut off people like me from asking questions. Not that I minded. After all, the trade show wasn’t about the 700 MHz auction. It was about the industry as a whole, and although the auction has become a large part of it, I can understand the desire to keep it from being the sole focus. In any case, the rules are now lifted, and it appears that AT&T wasn’t too happy with the open-access restriction put on the C-Block, on which it did not bid.
Read the rest of AT&T: Too much regulation on spectrum auction…

Check out this map of the E-Block of the 700 MHz auction. Notice that one company basically acquired a nationwide license. If you zoom into the legend in the bottom left corner, you’ll see that it’s Frontier Wireless. If you haven’t heard of the company, you’re not alone. It’s actually a company set up specifically to bid on the auction. It belongs to EchoStar, the satellite TV company that owns the DISH Network. So while AT&T and Verizon dominated the B- and C-Blocks, Frontier snuck in and mopped up the E-Block, which is said to be ideal for streaming TV. Gee, I wonder what their intention is?
Read the rest of Frontier Wireless readying to compete with big telecoms?…

As I talked about on Prepaid Reviews on Friday, the winners of the 700 MHz auction were revealed. As expected, Verizon and AT&T absolutely dominated. They were responsible for roughly $16 billion of the $19 billion bid in the auction. The rest went to the smaller players, including some satellite TV companies looking to take their signal to a mobile platform. Alltel, the nation’s fifth largest cell carrier, was shut out of the bidding, as was prepaid carrier Leap Wireless. Another prepaid provider, MetroPCS, picked up one lonely license. So who else won?
Read the rest of Some 700 MHz facts for Monday…

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.
Read the rest of Could 700 MHz spectrum open the iPhone…

The government was looking to raise $12 billion or so through the auction of 700 MHz airwaves. So they must be pleased to know that the bidding reached $11.6 billion at the end of the day on Wednesday. This includes all blocks — the A and B regional licenses, the coveted national C block, and the public safety D block. And yes, bidding is anonymous, so we don’t know who’s in on what. But we do know that despite the bid price, the C block hasn’t yet met its $4.6 billion reserve, which it was previously on pace to meet yesterday.
Read the rest of 700 MHz auction up to $11.6 billion…

So in addition to the 700 MHz spectrum, another broadcasting medium will become available in 2009. It’s the white spaces between the frequencies. We’re not totally educated on the topic, though we’ve read quite a bit about it over the past few days. Sticking with their M.O., Google wants these white spaces to be open to access from anyone. That is, they don’t want it to be licensed. Microsoft is with them on this one, but incumbents in both the broadcast and telecommunications industries aren’t so hot on the idea.
Read the rest of Sprint, T-Mo in fight over “white spaces”…

Good read over at the LA Times today (though we found it in the Chicago Tribune) today, where Jim Puzzanghera and Jessica Guynn talk about how the 700 MHz auction will affect the wireless world. Sure, the winners will have a powerful spectrum on which they can deliver services to their clients. But it goes beyond that, into what kind of information will be sent over these airwaves.
Read the rest of A view of the 700 MHz auction…