Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

According WSJ, insiders have informed the Journal that Google is planing to go at the auction alone which would attract offers estimated to be higher than 4.5 Billion Dollars. So the Google Phone, or Android as it is operating system is known now might find it’s own home, unlike iPhone.
To cement the facts the Journal also tells us that Google is doing a test run of an advanced wireless network at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, gaining operating experience that could come in handy if it wins the spectrum and decides to run a full-scale national mobile carrier.
I did not feel such micro waves when drove past Google today.
The authors of the article also wonders if Google is making a mistake by bidding and entering wireless world. Such things as unfamiliar grounds, making enemies out of telecom carriers etc. Perhaps WSJ is forgetting that Google entered a saturated search engine world. But the main thin I remember was the IPO!, Google did not follow the IPO path that WSJ familiar with and also allowed people like me to add Google shares to our portfolios, which otherwise would have gone in the way of big boys only!
Well Naysayers were wrong then and they could be wrong now. I think Google has the capability, the brain share and the capability to attract more, and certainly money even if they have to borrow some. But I hope they would and we might be able to get away from, even a bit, of this Ma Bell mentality when it comes to communication.
A Google spokesman said in a statement that the company would reveal any plans to participate in the auction by then. "In the meantime, we are making all the necessary preparations to become an applicant to bid," he said. "Our goal is to make sure that American consumers have more choices in an open and competitive wireless world," the spokesman added. Well said and we will know on Dec. 3, FCC deadline for declaring an intent to bid.
But the article is enlightening and I thank KEVIN J. DELANEY and AMOL SHARMA for letting me relive the excitement od Google IPO.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

If you have forgotten, amidst the noise about Google Phone or gPhone, that Google made headlines here and elsewhere, when it said plans to bid in the upcoming 700-MHz auction and it’s attempt to keep it open as in "Open Access" together FCC and other organization. Verizon even took FCC to court over the same issue.

Google’s Schmidt said Monday, during the press conference, that Android and the 700-MHz issue are "two separate initiatives", but if policymakers agree to the open access, a 700-MHz environment that will allows people to connect devices.", Android would certainly "run on that network,".

Schmidt also mentioneded that Google’s OpenSocial network "will be a framework that will run well on Android.", answering my question "Will Google Phone or Gphone play a role in OpenSocial?"

We worked on this phone; "VOIP IP Telephony: Google Phone coming soon!" for a while now.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

The Wall Street Journal carried an article about Google Powered Phone, (Google Phone, Gphone) today. But the Journal is basically saying what we have been saying for some time now, first article here, and then the update here, both with photos that were mocked up Google phone. Even the first article got DUGG. Of course Google’s support of open Broadband, Open access to 700MHz spectrum may have had something to do with Google Phone.

The article cites unnamed sources as saying Google has been talking to Taiwan’s HTC and South Korea’s LG Electronics about making phones that will run the Google mobile OS.
But I am yet to find a real Gphone photo.
Google might select T-Mobile, supposedly the most consumer-friendly of the major U.S. cellular carriers, as the Google phone’s wireless operator of choice. The Google based phones are expected to wrap together several Google applications like its search engine, Google Maps, YouTube and Gmail, that are already available on some mobile devices. The most radical element of the plan, though, is Google’s push to make the phones’ software "open" right down to the operating system, say Linux!, the layer that controls applications and interacts with the hardware. That means independent software developers would get access to the tools they need to build additional phone features.
WSJ Article

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

People are suing Apple and AT&T for iBricking their phones and unlawful business practice, but I think they should look at Verizon to bring on the next class action law suite. Verizon vehemently opposes Open Access infrastructure suggested by FCC, which companies like Google supported. This will basically take away the carriers ability to dictate what device we should be using and what should be (Software) on that device. Open access type operations are already available in Europe and Asia, where people chose the devices they need.
Apple on the other hand has made a mess out of otherwise a super tool that is attractive to the mases. It will not take over the communications world but it will have a large portion of the market looking for one. But making it only available for AT&T network may be the undoing. I hope they will come out clean from the lawsuit that AP reports; "Complaints over Apple Inc.’s use restrictions and recent software update for the iPhone have erupted in two lawsuits alleging Apple and its carrier partner, AT&T Inc., engaged in illegal monopolistic behavior.Two separate lawsuits were filed Friday in San Jose — one in federal court and the other in state court and both seeking class-action status.The federal case accuses the companies of unfair business practices and violations of antitrust, telecommunications and warranty laws. The state case raises some of the same allegations.Apple spokeswoman Susan Lundgren and AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel both declined to comment on them Wednesday."

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

I don’t like Verizon for the simple fact that it want to keep you and I in the dark when it comes to mobile communications.
For the same reason I hope they will fail with this attempt. I am not a big fan of AT&T nor iPhone, (I like other apple stuff) but Open access is a big mile stone for communications in USA.
So here a pointer talking about LG Voyager!

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Walt Disney Co. said Thursday that it would stop its Disney Mobile phone service at the end of the year and also end sales immediately, the second time in a year that the huge conglomerate has orchestrated a quick closing of a cellphone operation. Earlier it shutdown Mobile ESPN another niche offering. illustrates the challenges of competing with national wireless carriers that own their networks.
Disney, like many other so-called mobile virtual network operators, leased network capacity from one of the major carriers — Sprint Nextel Corp., in Disney’s case.
More the reason those upcoming spectrum’s be open and sold with requirements set out by FCC. No wonder Verizon does not like it.

The service had been targeted at the communications needs of families and children, offering features designed to enable parents to know where their children are and help youths learn to use cellphones responsibly, and of course to make money with it’s popular brand.
The phones were equipped to display the location of a user’s handset on a map, limit when and how the phone was used and set limits on expenditures.

The company said it became clear it would have to invest far more in the product to boost sales than could be justified. Exclusive deals cut between large retailers and mobile carriers made it too hard for Disney to get its product in front of customers, the company said.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Verizon is sueing FCC over the spectrum auction seeking to overturn rules that would allow any device or software to work on a portion of wireless airwaves. Verizon wants the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to set aside a section of the Federal Communications Commission’s rules, calling it "arbitrary, capricious, unsupported by substantial evidence and otherwise contrary to law.". All I can think of saying is bull ****.
They must be shivering over what must be the open access that rest of the world enjoys being launched here in the USA. A few Years ago, I had the pleasure of using Verizon and left me with feelings that never want to deal with them again. But personal feelings aside, what does that verizon wants that other wireless service providers do not seek or plan to deal with.
FCC stated that whoever buys that portion of the spectrum must allow any handset device to be attached to the wireless network they subsequently build and also allow any software application to be downloaded onto handsets over the network.
Both of these conditions would potentially shake up a wireless industry in which the incumbent players like Verizon Wireless exert strict control over the devices their customers can use and the applications they can use.
High-tech companies like Google Inc. and eBay Inc.’s Internet phone unit, Skype, had been aggressively pushing the FCC to adopt the conditions. Verizon Wireless, meanwhile, had been lobbying equally as hard against the conditions.
I would rather deal with companies like Google, Skype, than blood thirsty companies like Verizon. I really hope Google, skype even Microsoft gets the spectrum. Because these companies have different targets than incumbent companies like Verizon has.
"It’s regrettable that Verizon has decided to use the court system to try to prevent consumers from having any choice of innovative services," Chris Sacca, Google’s head of special initiatives, wrote in the company’s blog Thursday. "Once again, it is American consumers who lose from these tactics."
While Philip Verveer, a communications lawyer with the Washington, D.C., office of Wilkie Farr & Gallagher, these types of legal challenges to FCC rules are rarely successful. He said that not only is there a legal presumption that the court must consider the FCC’s rules to be correct, but that most often courts will unofficially defer to regulatory agencies as well. "I don’t know what basis one would have for launching a challenge of this matter," said Verveer. "A successful appeal of this kind is rarely successful."
Businessweek
Google Public Policy Blog: Consumer choice is always the right answer