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September 11, 2007

legal

Apple eyes 700 MHz spectrum?

Posted Sep. 11, ’07, 10:00 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar
Category | Legal

fcclogowords.gifThere’s been a lot of chatter going on lately surrounding the freeing up the 700 MHz spectrum. For those of you who haven’t been keeping score at home, the television broadcasters are handing back that part of the spectrum to the guv’ment in 2009, when analog television broadcasts will be shut off in the US.

Big companies (read: Google) are interested in throwing up a lot of cash (minimum bid: $4.6 billion) to acquire this prime spot in the electromagnetic spectrum. According to BusinessWeek: “Signals at the 700Mhz spectrum, for example, could provide far faster Internet access than today’s cellular or even Wi-Fi networks, and the signals can easily pass through buildings and work glitch-free, even in lousy weather.”

So, to cut to the chase, BW reports that Apple is eyeing bidding on this spectrum, according to two anonymous sources.

Why would Apple be interested in ponying up such scratch?

BW: “For starters, it would mean Apple would no longer need to rely on a phone company to deliver songs, TV shows, and other digital fare purchased at its iTunes Music Store. As it is, the major complaint of iPhone shoppers isn’t with the phone, but with the pokey Net access from Apple’s exclusive U.S. partner, AT&T.”

But our cousins over at ComputerWorld don’t seem to think this is likely, quoting three named analysts, including Gene Munster, who said: “Not only is that not where they know what they’re doing, but that’s also not where they want to go. It’s pretty clear that Apple wants to be a device and a software company, not a network operator.

Discuss.


1 Comments

Kotoki-chan Author Profile Page said:

I would love if the Apple model of business would be used for this, but I very much doubt that they will buy it, if not for Google being on the board. And with their gung ho ness, I would expect they to be biddiing high, more than Apple will want to put out.

September 11, 2007 12:00 PM

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