When the Federal Communications Commission auctions off wireless spectrum licenses the telcos usually line up. This time, they're going to have company.

Time Warner, Cox Communications, Comcast, Advance/Newhouse Communications and even Google are expected to take part in the upcoming FCC auction for valuable wireless spectrum licenses. (According to an article from CNET News.com, many analysts are predicting the 1,122 available licenses could generate between $8 billion and $15 billion for the government.) The question everyone is asking is why?

For the cable companies, there are a couple of answers. First, they could be looking to bump their current triple play bundle (Cable, broadband and VoIP) up to a quadruple play (Cable, broadband, VoIP and wireless), although the CNET story marginalizes this line of logic. The most likely use for the cable companies is a roll out of blanketed Wi-fi or Wi-max services. Google's motivation could be a way to bypass the broadband providers before they can institute tiered pricing (even though I think this is a long way down the road). Google is currently in the process of blanketing San Francisco and Mountain View, Calif., the logic being they're interested in the spectrum to expand this to other cities.

It will be interesting to see if any of these companies are actually players in the auction, or only posturing and keeping their options open. Either way, the telecoms can't be happy about the interlopers. — Brian Ward

Go to story from CNET News.com

Technorati tags: wireless spectrum, wireless, google.