Google (GOOGL) may find it hard to compete in wireless services amid an industry price war unless it plans to offer cloud-based perks to customers or finds another way to set itself apart from rivals. The Information on Wednesday reported that Google is in talks with Sprint (S) and T-Mobile US (TMUS) to lease network capacity and sell wireless direct to consumers. Speculation over Google becoming a MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) isn’t new.
Google spent a record $16.83 million on lobbying to influence federal regulators and lawmakers in 2014, just beating out Comcast to be No. 1 in lobbying spending among the nation’s 15 biggest tech and communications companies. Google’s (GOOGL) lobbying expenses in Washington, D.C., rose 20% year over year in 2014, according to Consumer Watchdog, which bills itself as a nonpartisan, nonprofit public interest group. Comcast (CMCSA) spent $16.8
Google (GOOGL) reportedly is mulling a sizeable investment in commercial space company SpaceX. The investment would advance Google’s ambitious plan to expand Internet broadband services worldwide via a network of space satellites, according to media reports. Speaking last week at the Seattle Center, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk detailed plans to double the number of satellites in operation now to 4,000, according to a report Tuesday in the Los