Google's Grand Plan for National Cell Phone Network

Internet giant Google wants to reshape the wireless world, and its plans reach far beyond the cell phone software the company introduced last week. At a Federal Communications Commission auction in January, the company may make a $4.6 billion solo bid to buy airwaves to run its own national mobile phone and internet wireless network, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Google's network, already running in a test version at its headquarters, could make high-speed mobile internet available to more consumers at lower prices. Google has said it wants to make mobile networks more open. Skeptics warn that such ambitions carry Google far from its core expertise, and that the company underestimates the difficulty of running a wireless network. (More Google stories.)