Google fights Verizon efforts to change rules in FCC auction

Google said Verizon Wireless is using improper lobbying tactics to persuade U.S. regulators to "water down" auction rules that would open wireless airwaves to any kind of mobile device or software.

Verizon Wireless broke lobbying rules by meeting with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin at the same time as filing a lawsuit to overturn terms of the wireless auction, Google lobbyist Richard Whitt said in an Oct. 1 letter to the FCC.

The auction requirements, adopted in July, require the winner of about a third of the wireless spectrum to open its network to any legal device or piece of software. Today, U.S. wireless carriers typically control the devices that connect to their networks.

Changing the auction rules would "seriously undermine" the FCC's effort to give wireless subscribers more choice, Whitt said Wednesday on Google's policy blog. The company owns the most-popular Internet search engine.

Frontline Wireless, a closely held company co-founded by former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, is also fighting Verizon Wireless' push to revise the rules.

Verizon Wireless, the second-biggest U.S. mobile-phone company after AT&T Inc., said it hasn't done anything wrong. Google's arguments are "not correct," and Frontline's position "borders on the absurd," Verizon said this week in separate letters to the FCC.

Last month, Verizon Wireless asked a U.S. appeals court to overturn the open-access requirements. The company also met with Martin on Sept. 17 to press for changes to the rules, according to a Sept. 28 letter the company sent the agency.

Debra Lewis, a spokeswoman for Verizon Wireless, declined to comment, saying the company's filings with the FCC and appeals court "speak for themselves."