I just came across this article
AT&T unsure about bidding in 700MHz auction (InfoWorld)
“Company CEO indicates that FCC’s open-access rules for the valuable spectrum could hinder the development of a profitable business model.”
Essentially what you are saying is there is some prime, beachfront real-estate up for auction, which everyone is lining up to bid for, and you think the rules and the price make it such that a profitable business model cannot be made? Ok, there are two scenarios…
- a) AT&T is right, and the open-access rule for the 700 mhz spectrum make it such that no business can make money at it. In this scenario, everyone else is wrong, including Google who has proven to be more than capable at creating ‘thinking out of the box’ business models, and AT&T is right.
- b) AT&T is lazy & uncreative and as a company doesn’t have the talent or capacity to think of a business model around owning prime real-estate.
Given the fact that AT&T’s stock price is sitting at $41 and Google’s stock price is at $644, I’ll let you decide which scenario is more likely.