The Government has offered Australia's three mobile operators, and vividwireless, renewal of their existing spectrum allocated on 15 year licences in the late 90s and early 2000s at set prices, while the Government expects to rake in $3 billion.
One would have thought that Apple and AT&T would have the most to hide in this whole thing, yet perusing the three submissions, it is only Google's that contains any redacted content (where Google has asked for a certain section of it's response to be restricted from public view).
More interesting is the specific area of redaction. In response to the question “What explanation was given for Apple's rejection…” The entire response was redacted, with a hint (judging by the page layout) that perhaps 200 – 300 words were hidden.
There has yet to be a FCC response (hardly enough time, of course), but there are also some unrelated but parallel issues.
This seems to boil down to a relatively cosy relationship between AT&T and Apple and the relative support of each other's business model up against the interloper who is trying to bust both. On the contrary, the interloper is (probably) bigger than both of the other players, yet is playing the poor cousin.
Similarly, this seems to be closely constructed around the arrangement between Apple and AT&T who have an exclusive distribution arrangement within the US, yet there are an enormous number of iPhone owners outside the US who are also implicitly governed by this relationship. Both whether they like it or not, AND whether or not they have consented to it via their own local telco arrangements.
Clearly, we await the FCC response, but as outlined, there are also a growing number of side-issues as well.
David Bass
| ComOps, a leading Australian provider of business software products and services, has won a competitive tender to deploy its Salvus safety, r…
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