Open Access Guaranteed on 700 MHz Spectrum

The FCC auction for the C-Block of the 700 MHz spectrum passed its reserve price on the bid of a unknown company, assuring that that part of the spectrum will have an open access requirement.Open access means that whoever controls that portion of the spectrum must make it accessible to any device and any application. For small and medium-size businesses, that could mean greater choice and lower prices in wireless communication.

Google was one of the major supporters of the open access provision and had even promised to meet the reserve price of $4.64 billion itself, so the search giant is widely assumed to be the bidder that pushed the bidding above that level. Speculation has Google and Verizon Wireless as rivals for the spectrum, however. Verizon once challenged the open access provision in court, before announcing that their existing network would be open by the end of 2007.InformationWeek, The Register