• CNET News.com, Thursday, June 14, 2007 11 AM

Never mind Net Neutrality: Google and its merry band of non-evil doers want the Federal Communications Commission to impose "open access" on the winners of the government's latest spectrum auction, claiming that Big Telecom's thus-far closed-off approach to wireless technology is anti-competitive.

CNET reports that a key debate will take place this morning at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing about whether open access rules should be imposed on at least some of those who win spectrum licenses through the latest auction. Radio Spectrum is the stuff that makes wireless networking possible. Telecom companies need it to make your cell phones work and to broadcast wireless signals from Internet hot spots. The FCC will ultimately decide the rules for the auction.

The move to create open access for licensed spectrum has created a situation much like last year's Net Neutrality debate, with organizations like MoveOn.og, Google and other bandwidth-sucking Web companies on one side, and ISPs like AT&T and Comcast on the other. Google claims an open marketplace for spectrum usage would bring down prices for consumers, whereas selling it to the highest bidder (likely one of the telecom giants) would only cede more power to the few.

In a recent letter to the FCC, the Save the Internet lobby group warned that, "phone and cable companies could become permanent gatekeepers of the airwaves," if the FCC sells to the telecoms, "keeping competition and innovation out of the marketplace."

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