Could Google rule the U.S. wireless landscape?


We already use Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) to search for information all over the web. Many of us use Google Earth to look at global satellite views, and Google Gmail for our email needs, and Google Docs & Spreadsheets for our online word processing and spreadsheets. Are we ready to use Google for our wireless voice and data telecommunication needs as well?

Google gets by on the backs of traditional telecom channels now, reaching hundreds of millions of customers over cable modems, DSL connections and T1 data lines from your local telecommunications cooperative. In a sense, the company bypasses everything it can to bring its services directly to each customer over a web browser. It's not the same game in the wireless business, as larger wireless companies keep iron-fisted control over what customers can access and who can market to them directly.

Google's intention to participate in the FCC's 700-megaHertz radio spectrum auctions in January tells the world that it wants to bypass the wireless carriers and provide services directly to consumers yet again. No revenue sharing, no unrealistic demands meant to pad the bottom lines of wireless carriers while underserving customers -- none of that.

Google has the cash and the fortitude to take on established telecom companies and give customers a much-needed alternative to tight controls over purchased wireless services. Wireless could be Google's second act that makes it one of the most powerful companies in the U.S. (by some estimations, it's already there).

Would you use Google as your wireless provider if given the choice? Will the company have too much control over information if it succeeds in becoming a player in wireless?

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