Microsoft takes side of angels on open spectrum

Microsoft is continuing to push the FCC to let devices, not carriers, define what happens on at least a portion of the spectrum broadcasters will abandon in 2009.

Most of the publicity here involves Google, but Microsoft has a longer history in Washington than Google, it has more resources there, and it has allies within the current Administration, who might want Big Green's help in keeping power after 2008.

In Washington, Microsoft is a better ally to have than Google.

Intel is also hovering in the background of this fight. When the combined lobbying muscle of Silicon Valley goes toe-to-toe with Verizon and AT&T, a compromise is the most likely result.

Any compromise here will kill the phone companies.

We have seen, over the last several years, the economic power that can be generated by open spectrum in the form of WiFi. We have seen how efficiently the resource can be used, and how consumer costs can be dropped to the floor.

The phone companies are right to fear that power, and to do everything they can to keep it from growing. Wireless is the source of all their profits, and if wireless prices drop to the floor they will likely wither and die.

So this is a life-and-death struggle for them, because if the market is unleashed, on a substantial swath of easily-reachable spectrum, the power of the duopolists will disappear.

So here is Microsoft, continuing to press its case, and forcing the FCC to choose between its interests or those of the Verizon-AT&T duopoly.

Here's hoping Microsoft wins this one.