The 700Mhz Auction and Building a Wireless network

I haven't been following the 700Mhz auction closely. It is only a few days until the process starts.

At CTIA, Steve Ballmer was asked if Microsoft was interested in participating and he answered that Microsoft would not as it is not the company's core value proposition to own spectrum or build and operate a wireless network.

That's what get me thinking - According to this article T-Mobile USA plans to invest over $10 Billion US dollars building their 2G and 3G network. Keep in mind, T-Mobile already has a network. If I am reading their financial statements right, Google has about $13 billion of cash and short term investments at hand (at the end of Sept 2007 , according to their 10-Q SEC filing).

 In other words, Google does not have enough money to buy the 700Mhz spectrum and build a nationwide high-speed wireless network. This aside of the business case of how would they monetize it, or the process to get other people to develop and market devices and systems that use the network. Of course, Google could partner with someone, or maybe building a WiMax network is not as expensive as T-mobile's 3G technology, or maybe Google plans to focus on the top 50 metro areas and build the network slowly.

My point is that even for a company as formidable as Google, building and operating a national wireless network is no easy task. It would be very interesting to see what they do if they win the auction.

We live in interesting times, indeed....