Google Readies Telecom Play

After a quiet summer, Google looks ready to make a splash this fall on the telecom front:

• The almost-final beta of its Android mobile operating system was released in late August, featuring an updated iPhone-like home screen and underlying software development kit improvements. (See screenshot.)
• The first Android-based phone, the HTC code-named “Dream,” received FCC approval and looks ready for a fall launch. Mock-ups of the device feature a touch-screen as well as a slide-out keyboard.
• Tests of localized advertising on Google's YouTube for mobile sites are under way. How big does Google expect mobile advertising to be? “We can make more in mobile than desktop [advertisting] eventually,” Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, told CNBC's Mad Money host Jim Cramer in a much-quoted August interview.
• Google is still hunting for wireless broadband spectrum, launching a new Web site called Free the Airwaves to petition for so-called “white spaces” spectrum.

In short, look for Google to make its long-awaited push — including firm details on its mobile advertising and carrier subsidy plans — sometime before year's end.