Google’s Whitespace Bid is Where Nexus is Going

by Jorge Escobar on January 6, 2010

Yesterday I saw the realtime video feed (thanks to @scobleizer) of the unveiling of Google’s new phone, the Nexus One. The phone looks great, with some really cool features and confirming that Google is really lining all its guns towards the mobile space.

But the announcement wasn’t revolutionary in any level. It’s a great new phone that’s powered by any cellular network. You can buy it straight from Google with no string attached. Ho-hum.

Before the announcement, my friend @joeles thought that the phone would finally break the dependence on mobile voice plans, working off of data plans exclusively using Google Voice (@mona was talking about the same thing on this blog post and got really good responses on FriendFeed).

I believe on the long run this is still the case, but it won’t be running on top of Wifi or data plans. I think Google will be utilizing the “whitespace” frequencies that were freed from TV signals to enable data communication on the Nexus or any upcoming Google phones.

The big question mark as usual is the business relationships that could potentially be broken by this shift. T-Mobile could have enforced some sort of contract with Google to stop this from happening. I don’t think that would be Google’s way of doing things, but you can never know. The fact that Google is selling the phone directly is a good indication that they are not going to be tied up with any carrier.

The mobile disruption did not happen just yet. But knowing Google, you can bet it’s on its way.

Tagged as: mobile, nexusone

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jungleG January 6, 2010 at 9:24 am

New blog post @ jungleg.com: Google’s Whitespace Bid is Where Nexus is Going http://bit.ly/6quRHX

This comment was originally posted on Twitter

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Todd January 6, 2010 at 9:41 am

It’s not that simple, modulation is quite the can of worms. In depth explanation of what it will take here:

http://www.wirelessdesignasia.com/article-8026-willus700mhzauctionberememberedfordismemberingwireless-Asia.html

Ignoring above frequency modulation transition issues, a quick Google search of “injunction to stop muni wifi” shows the carriers are willing to spend billions in legal fees to stop cities from putting up towers and providing local wifi, effectively bankrupting municipalities should they even try. That may be a hint at the kind of response we’d see should Google want to try to become a telco using the 700 Mhz frequency.

The decision makers at the telcos see the Nexus One as low volume “geeks only”, OK with a few thousand unlocked handsets running on their network ( they still get the revenue from data plan ). However being cut completely out of the picture? Ha. They’ll try to bury that in litigation for decades.

You’ll see a Google phone that runs on wifi first ( ala Google Voice ), long before one that runs on 700 Mhz

Jorge Escobar January 6, 2010 at 9:46 am: Super interesting read, Todd. You might be right about the legal injunctions, although the FCC paper does mention mobile two-way communications on their documents.

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NQ Logic January 6, 2010 at 10:21 am

Google is moving down in the stack to challenge B2C opponents with an open architecture and new sets of standards. In creating a post-revenue business model, Google can only manage success if consumers accept a co-branding and outsourced manufactured device … NQ Logic recommends reading about the rest of the new Google’s mobile strategy at http://www.nqlogic.com

jungleglinks January 6, 2010 at 11:49 am