FCC Ruling to Test Google Power

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. (More Google stories.)