US | Google FCC Ruling to Test Google Power Techies’ lobbying tactics on wireless auction vex old guard By Heather McPherson Posted Jul 30, 2007 9:53 AM CDT Copied Two women walk past a Google sign at the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday, July 17, 2007. Google Inc. is expected to release quarterly earnings on Thursday, July 19, 2007. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) (Associated Press) The FCC will rule tomorrow on whether an upcoming airwaves auction will require its winner to build an open-access network, and the verdict will test Google’s lobbying prowess, the Washington Post reports. Google has been pushing the open network aggressively, to the chagrin of AT&T and Verizon, mustering support from public interest groups and consumer advocates. In its first major foray into the regulatory wars, Google offered to spend at least $4.6 billion at the auction for the airwaves to build the open network, if the FCC rules in its favor. The company spent only 3% of the lobbying dollars that AT&T dropped in 2006, but its unconventional strategy, deploying bloggers, engineers and even game theorists, seems to have scored with the FCC chairman. Read These Next Hundreds of South Koreans were detained at a Georgia factory site. The story of a failed secret SEAL mission in North Korea. How you make it up the mountain can earn you cheers, or jeers. Residents of famed nudist ranch are suing property owners. Report an error