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Google and AT&T Go At It On the 700 MHz Spectrum

Good for Google for challenging the phone company as we no longer know it on challenging the lobbying smarts of AT&T to a real live Texas shoot out for the 700 MHz spectrum. 

Google's Chris Sacca, Head of Special Initiatives and a fellow Twitterer, writes on the Official Google Blog that they are proposing a $4.6 Billion bidding price for this valuable piece of real estate - a move that could help evolve Google into a phone company in its own right.

As of 4:00 PM CST today, there was nothing official on the AT&T news site, but Om Malik does have a statement from AT&T on his blog.

Articles in InformationWeek, San Jose Mercury News, and CNN give a variety of spins on the story. 

The bottom line is this:  Google wants to be an option for broadband so you don't have to go to a cable or telephone company. 

And I don't think Google would be satisfied with just telephony. 

They  could do TV - or rather Network(ed) TV via the Web and via wireless.   Get someone like 2Wire to build them a WiMAX NIB that goes outside your home and presto- you got IPTV, IP Telephony and more.  (Oh...2Wire is partially owned by AT&T.)

Just hook up a Google-branded set top box in your home, and have a two-tiered pricing scheme:  plan A is priced below AT&T or TimeWarner without ads and Plan B is free TV, wireless, and voice which is ad supported. 

Maybe I am going to an extreme here, but my take is that things are going to get very interesting on this issue. 

While AT&T and Google can certainly go at it with their financial war chests, the real battle for this very valuable piece of real estate may be won not in Silicon Valley or here in San Antonio, but in Washington, D.C.

Google may have the technical smarts and social capital to bring this matter to a serious policy debate,  but no one knows how to better handle legislative maneuverings better than AT&T's Jim Cicconi.

Photo by Alan Weinkrantz (c) 2007

Guest Blogger: Tom Evslin

We are currently working on an initiative with my day job client, Jeff Pulver of pulver.com in order to promote the idea of offering free voice mail services to consumers in the event that they are disrupted by a natural disaster such as a hurricane for more than 12 hours.

In supporting this initiative with Jeff, we are also working with Tom Evslin, who is a prolific blogger, and telecom thought leader in the telecom industry.

In the following post, Tom  contributes his thoughts on why  AT&T's should make voice mail available on all landline phones in the event of a natural disaster.

Here's Tom's post...

According to a survey of Gulf Coast residents commissioned by at&t, the most desired technology during a natural disaster is a voice mailbox (54% of respondents). However, at&t apparently doesn’t have confidence in its own ability to keep existing voicemail working in a catastrophe.

It would be nice if at&t would listen to these hurricane survivors and stop opposing the petition that Jeff Pulver and I filed with the FCC requiring that voice mail be available on all landlines during a disaster.  But don’t hold your breath.

The press release announcing the survey results has a long list of things people ought to do to get ready for a disaster.  #2 says:

“Prepare for the Worst-Case Scenario. During natural disasters, such as hurricanes or flooding, wireline services can be interrupted for extended periods of time because of damage caused by high winds or flooding. Wireless phones may serve as alternative means of communication.”

No mention here of the fact that a phone NUMBER can remain operative even if the phone LINE is down IF voicemail has been provided on the number.  Way down on the list at #7 is the statement:

“Know Where to Meet. Agree on a physical and virtual meeting place such as a voice mailbox or online chat site.”

But, of course, this won’t work unless voicemail is installed on a telephone number.  For some reason at&t does NOT suggest ordering voicemail service as a step in emergency preparedness.  Would have thought at least that the survey results create a marketing opportunity for this lucrative service even if at&t is unwilling to provide it to everyone on  a standby basis in an emergency as we have requested.

at&t may not have much confidence in the survivability of its voicemail capability.  In their response to our petition they say:

“Finally, the petition fails to address the very real likelihood that in a disaster impacting a large geographic area, such as a hurricane or earthquake, the platform supporting a provider’s voice mail service may be damaged along with the rest of the provider’s network, thus preventing the provider from fulfilling the mandatory voice mail proposal suggested by petitioners.”

Huh?  Is at&t actually locating voicemail storage anywhere near the switches serving the subscribers who own the mailboxes?  That would be really dumb.  Good thing for the FCC to look at.  Good case for truth in labeling if so because it means that the emergency facility MOST DESIRED BY USERS ACCORDING TO at&t is NOT reliable in an emergency.

If this is the case, they should tell people NOT to rely on this facility since the survey makes clear that people think voicemail WILL work (and, if this is the case, at&t or any other phone company with this problem should immediately reengineer).  If this is not the case, if voicemail really has been engineered as it should be so that it won’t be affected by the same catastrophe as the primary switch, then at&t should stop using this as an excuse NOT to provide emergency voicemail on all downed lines.

Visit Tom's Blog at: http://blog.tomevslin.com/