Reports emerged Monday that Jobs and Apple are indeed considering participating in the government's auction of 700-MHz spectrum -- the long-distance spectrum being abandoned by television broadcasters. Google already has announced its intention to bid. While the reports published Monday say Apple is leaning against the idea, Jobs apparently has been giving the possibility serious consideration.

"The major reason appears to be the iPhone," independent industry analyst Greg Sterling said in a telephone interview. "There's a lot of fervor around the idea of unlocking the iPhone from AT&T. The ability to offer wireless access without a carrier would be a benefit to Apple."

We Don't Need No Stinkin' 3G

In an iPhone-launch interview with the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg, Jobs dismissed the notion that he should have made the iPhone able to connect to 3G networks. "Wi-Fi delivers data several times faster than 3G networks," he said. Asked when there would be a 3G iPhone, he said, "Again, Wi-Fi is far faster than the 3G networks."

Last week he unveiled the iPod touch, which, like the iPhone, is Wi-Fi enabled but doesn't run on cellular networks. Theoretically, both the iPhone and the iPod touch could run on the 700-MHz spectrum. "The rationales are valid enough that they are probably looking at it," Sterling said. "It gives them a measure of degree over their own fate."

Becoming a network operator would be a huge sea change for Apple, though. While many have speculated about Apple moving to an Internet-computing approach, Apple really operates only one Web service : iTunes. "Apple can see the road ahead -- wide connectivity -- and how they would benefit," Sterling said. "They would be foolish not to chew on the idea, but it's unlikely they'll actually do it." (continued...)

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