Will Google Rule The Airwaves?

Greed is good. Well isn't it?

As if it didn't already control enough, now Google wants to control the air. Or, the Washington Post reports, at least it wants a shot at controlling part of the $15 billion worth of public airwaves that Federal Communications Commission will be setting the auction rules for tomorrow.

The fate of the airwaves, which are being abandoned by television broadcasters moving to digital programming and are ideal for carrying wireless signals, will have a profound effect on the future of the cellphone industry. The auction is scheduled for next January.

Currently, major U.S. wireless carriers like AT&T and Verizon Wireless dictate which Web sites, search engines and music-download services their customers have access to on their cellphones.

But Google has offered to spend $4.6 billion for airwaves it would use to build "a new, open network it says will loosen the grip telecom operators have on how costumers use their cellphones," the Post reports.

But for the plan to work, the FCC rules must work in its favor, so Google is taking its first serious plunge into lobbying, opening a temporary 12-person office on Pennsylvaia Avenue. So far, it seems to be working.

"Its goal of creating an open-access network, first thought as a long-shot proposal, has gained substantial political traction among FCC commissioners and Democratic lawmakers, who see the auction as an opportunity to create a new competitor in the wireless industry," the Post reports.

You've got to ask, though. How long can a company with a dozen lobbyists working to bend federal law in its favor continue proclaiming its mantra is "Don't Be Evil"?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/07/30/the_skinny/main3109992.shtml