Google may join in with UK internet providers
September 28, 2007 at 11:07 am
Will the earth itself actually end up being bought by Google? There seems to be no end to the power and ambition the Californian-based company has. Earlier in the year they bought the pioneering video sharing website YouTube for a reasonable $1.65 billion. In April 2007 they purchased the huge internet advertising service DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. Furthermore, their satellite Maps are used the world over for surveillance, the search engine is the most visited website in the world, and the company is planning on capitalising on its profile here.
The UK regulator Ofcom have announced this week that they are planning to auction off a share of the wireless mobile phone ownership currently in use in the UK by O2 and Vodafone, who make up a third of the market-share. According to a recent article in The Guardian, Google are planning to enter the auction. Clues as to their intentions can possibly be seen in their weighing up a bid of up to £2.3 billion for the same business in the US.
The way the system works here in the UK has been the same for some time now. The 3G spectrum, which is the platform the mobile phone wireless internet works on, is shared by the five main mobile phone networks: O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and 3. However, Ofcom will allow a third of that market to come under the hammer, forcing O2 and Vodafone out of the race that they have been in for over 22 years.
Google will be keen to join this race, particularly because they already have plans in place to enter the mobile phone world with rumoured services called the GPhone and contracts called GPay. One of the biggest weapons in their arsenal is the fact that, unlike the five main phone networks over here, Google won’t have to charge for the usage of the wireless internet browsing. The reason for this is because they already make so much money from the internet through sponsored links and advertising on their search engines.
Vodafone are less nervy about the possible Atlantic-invasion, as they have partnered with Orange to guarantee they are still around when the new wireless spectrum is launched in 2010. T-Mobile and 3 are rumoured to be doing the same. Poor old O2, however, might be left out in the cold though, with only their recent exclusive iPhone deal – which doesn’t even have 3G technology here in the UK – to keep them warm. Google is on its way to Blighty and there is little we can do to stop it.
