Free Republic

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 18, 2008 STATEMENT BY FCC CHAIRMAN KEVIN J. MARTIN Washington, D.C. –FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin today announced the close of Auction 73 (the 700 MHz auction). The auction began on January 24, 2008, and closed today after 261 rounds of bidding. The FCC auction raised a record $19.592 billion and helped advance new open platform policies. Auction 73 Raised More Money Than Any Auction has Ever Raised The $19.592 billion in revenue raised in the 700 MHz auction is significantly more than raised in any past FCC auction. In comparison, the 2006 Advanced Wireless...

Google has made it officially clear that they are committed to making their wireless spectrum proposal win the FCC decision. Google said they would bid $4.6 billion for the 700 megahertz band wireless spectrum, if the FCC approved their proposal. Why? Google said they want to put their money where their "principles are," by making a bid at "giving abundant access to this rich resource" on "a global scale." More coverage at Techmeme. Postscript from Greg: A larger context in which to see this is net neutrality. Google is clearly interested in expanding its mobile services and this undoubtedly...