Maven Mapper's

Many companies are putting up bids of billions of dollars to control several segments of wireless spectrum airwaves. 

Companies qualified to bid include major carriers AT&T Inc and Verizon Wireless, as well as possible new competitors like Internet company Google Inc, EchoStar Communications Corp and Cablevision Systems Corp.

Wireless auction bids $3.7 bln

Players like At&t and Verizon already play ball in this market and their presence as bidders is not terribly surprising.  Cablevision and EchoStar are in the cable broadcast business and their presence is not that unusual either.

Google however is an advertising and search engine company.  They are rumored to be developing a mobile phone, but a mobile phone and ownership of spectrum does not make a wireless phone network.  That requires infrastructure, cell towers, retail stores, and a great deal more.

Google attempted and failed to set up city wide WiFi service in San Francisco.  They have also entered into the arena of Radio advertising.  Could they be planning some attempt at providing wireless broadband access?

As an advertising company and a search engine company they are already under fire for abridging free speech.  They control the flow of information through their search engine, enabling the speech that they like and blocking the speech that they do not and pushing speech to a position of prominence when paid to do so.  What might happen if they not only control the flow of information but the pipes that information is transferred upon enabling them to identify the people by name that send and receive that information?

One thing is for sure their purchase is not going to come cheap.  At about $4 billion and no Shutterfly coupons to give them a discount, their shareholders are going to be spending a great deal of shareholder value to gain access to the identities of people surfing the internet.