November 12th, 2007
Google must demand open spectrum
Our own Michael Kanellos has an insightful piece on Google’s mobile telephony plans which begins Can Google grovel?
In it he correctly identifies the gatekeepers in the present mobile market, and expresses concern that Google and its Android unit will be unable to break through them, despite the hype over an Open Handset Alliance.
He’s right. He’s absolutely right. If Google allows its effort to be defined by the present proprietary industry, it will fail. It will accomplish nothing.
Today’s mobile world is defined by the closed networks of cellular operators, not by the open network of the Internet.
Regardless of where you go, around the world, you find a network structure right out of the 1980s, in which network operators are gatekeepers who can prevent innovation from occurring, and which demand the lion’s share of profit from anything which they deign to let occur.
It’s as if the Internet does not exist. And in terms of mobile services, it does not.
Intel and other chip-makers have sought to serve a different kind of market, an Internet-like market, through the WiFi and WiMAX standards. But they can’t get around the gatekeepers.
The reason for that, as I’ve stated here before, is that the gatekeepers are protected by governments. These governments have made exclusive deals with the Bells around the world, deals which protect those companies from market forces.
We got a wonderful hint of just how deeply government is embedded in this problem during the debate over the 700 MHz auction process. The best place to see this nonsense in action is at the “Precursor” blog of Scott Cleland.
Cleland has long been a shill for Bell positions on every issue. On this issue he calls open spectrum “corporate welfare” on behalf of Google.
Rather than argue with his Alice-in-Wonderland world view (competition is monopoly, monopoly is a free market) I will just say that his view is the majority view in Washington today, among both Republicans and Democrats.
We have an inchoate mass of supporters for network neutrality and open spectrum in the U.S. Some are subject matter experts like Dave Isenberg and Bruce Kushnick. Others are partisans like Matt Stoller and Public Knowledge.
They are outgunned. They are losing. They will continue to lose until the tech industry comes in with the money and lobbying power needed to hammer the Bells in their lairs and win.
Google’s plans in this area remind me of the old Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney movies from generations gone by. “My dad has a barn — let’s put on a show.”
Outside their imaginary world immense forces were aligning, but inside their Hollywood Googleplex there was nothing a musical number could not somehow fix.
It’s past time for Google, for Microsoft and Intel as well, to understand what they’re up against and fight back against the Bells.
They’ve strangled the mobile world, they’re poised to do the same to the Internet, and I’m tired of sounding like Churchill in the wilderness on this.
That’s Google’s choice. It can grovel or it can fight.
Will it be Churchill or Chamberlain?
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 11/12/07
