GigOm’s Paul Kapustka reports that yesterday at The Aspen Summit, Google CEO Eric Schmidt affirmed the search giant will “probably” bid in the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auctions.
After reportedly piloting his own twin-engine aircraft to this well-known mountain resort town for an evening keynote speech at this year’s Progress and Freedom Foundation’s Aspen Summit, Schmidt wrapped his first public comments about the recent spectrum rulemaking into a wide-ranging talk that championed free speech, open networks and the future of communications infrastructure, the latter of which he called “a national issue” that demands immediate attention.
“We need to keep the Internet free and open — if it goes the other way, we’re going to have a serious problem,” Schmidt said to open his remarks. He then said networks are now “at the level of roads and electricity,” building an important infrastructure “more quickly than we’ve ever seen.”
In his prepared talk, Schmidt championed the defense of free speech, universal broadband access, network neutrality principles and government information transparency as four “call to action” items on Google’s to-do list. But his headline-making remarks vis-a-vis the 700 MHz rulemaking all but committed Google to participating in the upcoming auction, ending speculation that the company might sit out the bidding since the FCC didn’t completely agree with all of Google’s rulemaking suggestions.
The Washington Post notes Google spent about $770,000 on their 2006 congressional lobbying effort, compared to the $21 million spent by AT&T and $14.4 million spent by Verizon the same year.
The auction begins Jan 16, 2008. DailyWireless has more on The Final FCC Rules for 700MHz.
.gif)
