Comcast and Time: No bid for spectrum

Philadelphia Inquirer, The, December, 2007 by Bob Fernandez Inquirer Staff Writer

Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc., the nation's two largest cable companies, said yesterday that they wouldn't seek 700-megahertz spectrum licenses for new wireless services at a forthcoming FCC auction. Their decisions avoid a potentially costly bidding shoot-out with Google Inc. Google, the search engine giant, with a $215 billion market capitalization, said last week that it would participate in the government auction, which is scheduled to begin Jan.

24. Bidding for the 700-MHz licenses will start at $4.6 billion, and the sale could raise up to $15 billion for the U.S. Treasury, according to published reports. Google is expected to compete with AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless. The spectrum has been used by television broadcasters, which are making a transition to...