I often admire Google for many business decisions they make. I was very surprised and pleased when Google decided to shutdown their china business operations instead of bowing to China government pressure to filter Google search results for Chinese searches. More recently, the government of Kazakhstan asked google to make some undesirable changes, and again Google said no. This is all evidence that Google cares more about the greater good than they do about $$. So…Google ALWAYS makes decisions based on the greater good…right?Wrong. In other cases Google is willing to bow to pressure instead of fight the good fight. Last month, Verizon Wireless “ordered” Google to remove tethering applications from the Google market (for Verizon phones only.) Apparently Google is more afraid of wireless carriers then they are of Governments, because Google dutifully blocked these applications for Verizon phones. But why won’t Google stand up for consumers in this case?The story becomes even more strange when you consider a wireless spectrum auction 3 years ago. The FCC was auctioning off 700MHz spectrum, and Google and Verizon were among the bidders. In the end, Verizon won the auction, but in the process Google convinced the FCC to place restrictions on the spectrum. One of the restrictions was that the winning bidder would have to adopt open access rules. The company would be forced to allow customers to connect to the network from ANY device, using ANY application the customer chooses.Fast forward to today, and Verizon is rolling out their new LTE network which is built on the above mentioned 700MHz spectrum that Verizon won in the auction. So why is Verizon breaking the FCC rules? Verizon is trying to force their customers to only use THEIR tethering service (which costs $20/mo, by the way.) But the FCC rules specifically disallow this practice.Which brings us back to Google. If Google was willing to spend so much time and money to make sure that the FCC put open access rules into their 700MHz spectrum grant, then why doesn’t Google NOW stand up to Verizon on this issue? Why won’t Google tell Verizon, “Wait a minute! You are breaking the FCC rules that we helped make 3 years ago for your 700MHz spectrum. No, we won’t block tethering applications for your customer’s phones.”And that is the question. Google, why won’t you fight with Verizon (and the other carriers) on this issue when you are willing to stand up to big powerful governments like China?Our only hope is a complaint filed by Free Press to the FCC about this issue. Free Press is asking the FCC to investigate Verizon to find out if the wireless carrier is breaking the license agreement Verizon signed when they purchased the 700MHz spectrum. I hope the FCC rules against Verizon, because this would be a first step in the direction of sanity and fairness for Wireless consumers.
