Telecom Sense

Google's "Think Big Gig": What Is And What Should [Will] Never Be

And if you say to me tomorrow
Oh, what fun it all would be
then what's to stop us, pretty baby
but what is and what should never be -Led Zeppelin, "What Is And What Should Never Be"

With profuse apologies to Led Zeppelin for blaspheming their iconic song title to do a telecom policy blog, this is essentially what Google announced to DC policy makers, via its corporate/policy blog, on Wednesday--except that the policymakers and the press didn't hear the last line.  But, boy, did they eat up the first few . . . you can tell that Valentine's is in the air.

I say the "announcement" was targeted toward policy makers, because absolutely no relevant business information was provided in the announcement--you know . . .  costs, prices, projected revenues, technology to be used, etc.  No vendors, competitors, or even Google's Clearwire partners (a venture from which--according to news reports--Google has been backing away) were interviewed or consulted.  No, but that's OK, because this wasn't a business "announcement."

What the "announcement" really says is how much political clout Google carries in Washington.  On a day when the Gub'ment is closed for a fourth consecutive day, some of the most important Government officials involved in technology policy were intrigued enough to very quickly issue "statements" in reaction to Google's blog post.

For example, the New York Times story actually contains a "statement" from Chairman Genachowski reacting to the Google blog post, and the statement reacts to Google's announcement like it were an "official" announcement--like a firm commitment to enter a market in a specific way, explaining product terms and prices, entry timing, costs, and projected revenues.  The Hill even contains a statement from Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet.  Moreover, just about every story you'll read really "drank the Kool-Aid."  From the articles I saw on line, only Computerworld got it right.   

But what gives me the right to question Google's ambitiously-admirable, but vaguely-defined, "experiment", the belief of the bulk of the press, and some of the most important officials in Washington?  Well . . . there's this small problem of the facts and the logic.  First, Google's blog never says exactly how they plan to offer this 1 gigabit/sec (1,000 megabit/sec) broadband service at a "competitive price."  Second, the whole theory seems to contain a pretty glaring logical flaw: wouldn't Google deciding to become a broadband ISP allow other Broadand ISPs into Google's monopoly business?


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