Google may intentionally lose its bid for wireless airwaves at auction early next year, according to some experts.The auction, which is set to take place next month, will see firms competing for airwaves that will become available in 2009 and could provide firms with the opportunity to offer mobile and internet services.
Earlier this year, the search engine provider successfully lobbied to persuade US regulators to force the winning bidder to open their networks to competing mobile service providers.
For this reason, some analysts have now said that Google may not attempt to triumph over other bidders, since it would still have access to airwaves without having to build its own costly wireless network, Bloomberg reports.
Todd Dagres of venture capital firm Spark Capital, for example, stated: "[It's] going to get what [it] want[s] without having to put up billions of dollars.
"The ideal scenario is to get the openness so [it] can offer [its] services. I'm not sure [it] want[s] to be a wireless carrier."
Google is not obliged to bid at all. However, failure to do so would mean the firm's open network requirements would no longer stand.
The company is committed to bidding as it wants the aforementioned rules enacted, according to Ben Schachter, analyst at financial services firm UBS.
Firms intending to take part in the auction are required to notify the Federal Communications Commission by the end of today (December 3rd).
