Ballmer: Microsoft Won't Join FCC's Spectrum Auction
284996
Microsoft won't participate in the 700 MHz spectrum auction planned by the FCC for January, CEO Steve Ballmer said.
378736
Microsoft is not privately haggling with Yahoo over the software maker's rejected $31-per-share buyout offer for the slumping Internet pioneer, Bill Gates said in an interview.
734238
(InfoWorld) - New broadband providers should be given a better chance of winning pieces of valuable wireless spectrum to be auctioned by early next year, several groups said Friday. The groups, including Google, startup Frontline Wireless, and consumer advocate Public Knowledge, called on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to change the way it auctions spectrum when it sells off 60Mhz of spectrum to be freed up when U.S. television stations move to all-digital broadcasts. The auction of the coveted 700MHz band of spectrum -- which allows broadband-speed wireless signals to travel farther and penetrate buildings better than some other bands -- presents the best hope U.S. consumers have of a third major broadband service to challenge cable and DSLÂ carriers, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation, a think tank that hosted Friday's spectrum forum. "If we do nothing -- if we take the [auction] rules we've used for the last 10 years, the same incumbents are going to win," added Harold Feld, senior vice president of the Media Access Project, an open media advocacy group. "There is no competition fairy. There is no magic that's going to happen that if we just deregulate enough, somehow a new competitor is going to emerge." The groups at the spectrum auction forum didn't agree on all the details, but they suggested that the way the FCC has auctioned spectrum in the recent past has favored large incumbent telecom carriers. The FCC is expected to set the rules and conditions for the auction of the 700MHz band of spectrum in the coming weeks. The groups called on the FCC to require that the winners of a chunk of the spectrum allow "open access" -- sell access to competitors on a wholesale basis. The open access requirement would allow a nearly unlimited number of competitors to offer wireless broadband services, said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge. The groups also want the FCC to conduct anonymous auctions -- where bidders wouldn't know whom they're bidding against. In the past, large wireless carriers have used transparent auctions to drive up prices on chunks of spectrum being bid on by small competitors, said Gregory Rose, an econometrician and game theorist working with open access proponents. In many cases, many larger carriers then dropped their bids after the smaller carriers were eliminated, he said. Some carriers have also engaged in retaliatory bidding against other companies that bid on spectrum they were interested in, he said. The retaliating bidder will bid on spectrum the second company is interested in, "as a signal to say, 'back off on the license I want, or I will drive the price of the license you want through the roof,'" Rose said. VerizonÂ and AT&T, two large broadband and wireless carriers, have declined to comment on the upcoming auctions. But some free-market think tanks and carrier trade groups have been vocal in opposing open access requirements for the spectrum auctions. Scott Cleland, chairman of advocacy group NetCompetition.org, questioned Frontline Wireless' open access goals in a blog post Thursday. Frontline "wants the FCC to auction spectrum to them requiring ... open access -- so effectively no company will be able/or want to pay much for the 700 MHz spectrum -- and so Frontline Wireless could capture this most valuable spectrum available at the market-managed price of pennies on the dollar," he wrote. But Frontline chairwoman Janice Obuchowski, speaking at Friday's forum, noted that the two largest wireless carriers are gobbling up market share, and without new auction rules, that will continue to happen after spectrum auctions. She called for the FCC to auction off the 700Mhz spectrum in small chunks that smaller companies can afford, breaking with Google's call for larger blocks to be auctioned. The goal of the auction should be for "true, robust competition" to emerge, she said.
497181
Microsoft Corp. is denying that its CEO Steve Ballmer told Asian government leaders on Thursday that Microsoft believes that Linux violates more than 200 software patents.
77750
U.S. regulators said Microsoft Corp.  does not have to include in its proxy a shareholder proposal demanding that the software maker justify its support for Net neutrality, according to a decision made public on Tuesday.
289415
The upcoming 700MHz spectrum auctions by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)&#160;have drawn bid applications from giant companies including Google and AT&amp;T. But a number of small companies and individuals have submitted bid applications as well.
648175
(InfoWorld) - Wireless carriers planning to offer next-generation wireless services have bid $13.9 billion in a spectrum license auction that ended Monday, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said. The FCC sold 1,087 of 1,122 available licenses to 104 companies in its first auction of so-called advanced wireless service spectrum, often called third-generation or 3G wireless. The licenses can be used to offer several services, including voice, data and video, the FCC said. The bidders with the fiveÂ highest winning bidsÂ were T-Mobile License, Verizon Wireless, SpectrumCo, MetroPCS, and Cingular, the FCC said. The unsold licenses remain held by the FCC and will be made available again in a future auction. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, in a statement, called the auction "the biggest most, successful auction" in FCC history. It was the largest auction of wireless broadband in a single FCC auction, Martin said. "Although we cannot envision our lives without access to the Internet, I believe we are only beginning to imagine the way mobile broadband networks will impact our lives -- changing the business and entertainment possibilities available to consumers," Martin added. The auction made available "raw material" needed for next-generation wireless broadband, said Jeff Kagan, an independent telecom analyst. "The remaining question is, what will these companies do with this spectrum?" he said in an e-mail. "What new services or new competitors will we see using this spectrum? We will have to stay tuned to see what hatches from this auction."
1257
Several companies have challengedÂ spectrum auction rulesÂ recently set by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, with Frontline Wireless protesting that the auction of the 700MHz band to be auctioned in January could shut out small bidders.
84851
Microsoft Corp  said on Tuesday it will not participate in an upcoming U.S. mobile phone airwave auction despite speculation that Web rival Google Inc  will bid at least $4.6 billion on the wireless spectrum.
536841
Blog: Search giant announces it's participating in the Federal Communications Commission's upcoming wireless spectrum 700MHz band auction--but there's a catch.
668369
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell won't vote to break the deadlock on AT&amp;T's $86 billion merger with BellSouth.
485033
A venture led by Microsoft Corp  co-founder Paul Allen has applied to bid in an upcoming U.S. auction of coveted wireless airwaves, according to auction documents released late on Tuesday.
165591
A coalition of technology and telecommunications vendors will oppose a plan to give U.S. public safety agencies a new wireless spectrum.
555450
Microsoft can't dust off its blue ribbons anymore.
10647
Blog: Microsoft says selling Linux coupons doesn't constitute acceptance of the new General Public License, and those coupons won't include support for GPL 3 software.
489569
(InfoWorld) - AT&T Inc. has backed away fromÂ earlier complaints about proposed open-access rules on parts of theÂ 700MHz spectrum to be auctioned by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission by early next year. Draft auction rules floated by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin have "struck an interesting and creative balance between the competing interests" that are lobbying the commission, AT&T said of its understanding of those rules in a statement Wednesday. Just last Thursday, AT&T Vice President Robert Quinn had written the FCC saying the so-called Google plan for open-access rules for part of the auctioned spectrum "would turn the clock back on a decade of bipartisan consensus on the proper approach to wireless deregulation." In addition, open-access rules could expose the FCC "to a reversal in the courts," with lawsuits delaying the auction winner from using the spectrum, Quinn wrote on July 12. The open-access proposals would diminish the value of the spectrum and amount to "corporate welfare," AT&T said. Since then, AT&T has gained a better understanding of Martin's draft auction rules proposal, AT&T said Wednesday. Martin's proposal, as AT&T now understands it, would "allow" the auction winner to experiment with some open access rules, Jim Cicconi, AT&T's senior executive vice president for external and legislative affairs, said in a statement. "The plan would enable the introduction of an alternative wireless business model without requiring changes in the business models of AT&T and others in what is a highly competitive wireless industry," Cicconi added. Google Inc. and several consumer groups have called for open-access rules on a portion of the 60MHz of spectrum to be auctioned. Under open-access rules, auction winners would be prohibited from blocking or slowing Web content from competitors, and they would have to connect to any wireless devices customers wanted. In addition, under open-access rules proposed by Public Knowledge and other groups, the auction winner would have to sell spectrum access to competitors at wholesale prices. Open-access rules are needed to encourage a third national broadband competitor to the large cable and telecom carriers, the groups have said. "We urged the commission not to rely on a status quo approach to the upcoming auction," wrote Richard Whitt, Google's telecom and media counsel, in a letter to the FCC July 9. "Rather, the agency must do what is necessary to bring about robust forms of ... broadband competition." Public Knowledge, a digital rights group, has said Martin's draft rules don't go far enough. While Martin wants device portability and no blocking of Web applications, he hasn't called for wholesale access to the spectrum. Without wholesale access, it's unlikely a third broadband service could challenge cable and telecom services, Public Knowledge has said. Art Brodsky, communications director for Public Knowledge, called the new AT&T position a "remarkable turnaround." But Randolph May, president of the conservative think tank, The Free State Foundation, said he disagrees with AT&T's interpretation of what the auction rules would allow. "My impression (perhaps erroneously) had been that Chairman Martin's proposal would mandate an open access ... regime in the one block [of the spectrum]," May wrote in an e-mail. "There is a significant difference between 'allowing' and 'mandating.' My understanding is that absent a mandate, nothing at all in any existing or proposed FCC rule would prevent the winning bidder from voluntarily adopting an open access business model."
102606
Microsoft Corp. said it won't appeal a European court antitrust decision that requires it to immediately begin licensing protocols to rivals and selling a stripped-down version of its Windows operating system.