Microsoft plans to pass wireless auction

MICROSOFT PLANS TO PASS WIRELESS AUCTION
[SOURCE: Reuters]
Microsoft said on Tuesday it will not participate in an upcoming U.S. mobile phone airwave auction despite speculation that Web rival Google will bid at least $4.6 billion on the wireless spectrum. Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said the company was not interested in the auction for the 700-megahertz spectrum band because it would not advance the company's strategy to sell mobile phone software to handset makers. "What would it buy us to buy a piece of spectrum, one piece of spectrum in one country," said Ballmer at the CTIA wireless conference in San Francisco seen over the Internet. "It would do a lot to alienate the telecom industry." Ballmer would not address Google directly, but said Microsoft's expertise is not in setting up wireless networks.
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2331009420071023