This question came in from reader Dick:
I seem to remember an article somewhere that said some part of the spectrum being vacated due to the digital TV switchover was to be made available to a new communications service, which would allow people to buy a phone from anyone and use the new spectrum like a wireless internet service open to anyone with the right phone. I seem to recall the Google name was associated with the idea. I haven't anything more about it. Is something like this coming?
See Sascha Segan's answer after the jump.
What you're talking about are the "open access "provisions that were baked into the 700-Mhz auction last year. But that provision is actually relatively weak; for instance, AT&T and T-Mobile are already running networks that would fulfill that provision. (You can buy a GSM phone from anyone and use it with AT&T or T-Mobile service.)
Verizon will be using the new spectrum for an LTE system, which like AT&T and T-Mobile will use SIM cards and work with any LTE phone. There aren't any LTE phones yet, though; it's a new technology that hasn't been built yet.
AT&T also got some spectrum. The Dish Network people got some spectrum to do two-way services with satellite TV. Some other spectrum is going to Qualcomm's MediaFLO cell-phone-TV service. Some other spectrum is going to public safety.
The switchover will also enable Motorola's "white space broadband" devices, which could be for new wireless Internet providers we haven't even heard of yet.
Cheers,
Sascha Segan
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