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Mobile Industry & Technology Journalist - freelance

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By KAUSTUBHA PARKHI

Published: 13 November, 2007

Ever since Google launched its free Wi-Fi Internet service in its hometown of Mountain View, California in 2006, the search giant has embarked upon a multi-pronged attacked on mobile. Spectrum owner, operator, mobile application provider and handset operating system supplier are strategies that have all either been announced or executed. Virtually every route into the mobile market has been covered with a single motivation in mind - to secure liquid crystal real-estate for its successful, and highly lucrative, ad-funded business model. More specifically, we believe that for Google mobile equals location, and location aware applications and services will drive the advertising model to heights unachievable in the desktop world.

Here is how Google is looking to crack the wireless code:

Regulators worldwide are in various stages of redefining their spectrum allocation policies and Google has pulled out all the stops to hammer home to the FCC its views on ideal spectrum allocation. In response to the US Government's auction of the 700 MHz band vacated by television companies, Google has hired Richard Fritz of MCI to lobby with the FCC. Google's desire is for the wide availability of large chunks of contiguous spectrum to facilitate high-speed data transfer through technologies such as WiMAX and LTE. The FCC's acceptance of these conditions will facilitate the entry of many more players in the wireless arena, increasing competition. For the 700Mhz auction, Google is insisting on neutrality of access terms which would force auction winners to open their network to any device. Putting its money where its mouth is, Google has offered to pay $4.6 billion (the reserve price) if its suggestions are accepted.

Dabbling in the wireless service provider space is nothing new for Google. It already provides free Wi-Fi to the users in Mountain View and has offered to provide the same service for subscribers in San Francisco until plans for the city's metro network were scuppered earlier this year.

While these service provider initiatives might appear puzzling, they are an important consideration for Google since the company cannot afford to be beholden to anyone. The wireless carriers enjoy an incredible amount of control over the traffic which travels over their networks and many still leverage 'walled gardens' which lock subscribers to the operator's selected mobile content and services. They also are extremely demanding when it comes to revenue sharing with content owners: some making as little as 5% of sale revenue due to the lopsided agreements heavily in favour of the carrier.

By entering the market, Google's objective is to exert greater control of its mobile services, as well as facilitating increased competition, thereby relaxing the grip of the incumbents. Google has demonstrated a multi-pronged approach to step into the shoes of the service providers. It has explored any and every opportunity that has presented itself. The purchase of spectrum is one such example. Other examples include buying of unutilized dark-fiber and working on initiatives such as broadband over power cable. For the latter, Google has built data centers close to such power utilities.

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