The latest juicy piece of iGossip to turn up has Apple looking at getting into the wireless carrier business.

According to Business Week, Steve Jobs flew in a few advisers to look at the logistics behind bidding on some radio real estate.

You see, when television broadcasts go exclusively digital in the year 2009, the FCC will be left with a vacant chunk of spectrum in the 700mhz range. The bidding will begin at $4.6bil and is expected to close around $9bil.

When the bidding is up, will it be Apple holding the deed to the spectrum?  Not likely.

11 Sep 2007

As a mobile device manufacturer, Apple is in demand. AT&T made unprecedented concessions to get the rights to the iPhone, and carriers in Europe are said to be agreeing to similar deals. If a carrier wants to serve the iPhone, they'll have to come forward on their hands and knees and agree to Apple's terms.

Granted, Apple has never played well with others, but why invests billions in buying the spectrum, and billions more in building the infrastructure to serve it, and what could be even more billions of dollars in the ineviteble growing pains and rollout issues when you have the entire industry on a leash? Emptying the reserves to be come a service provider when one is getting sweetheart deals as a device provider is a risky idea to say the least.

What may make more sense for Apple would be to let someone else, say, Google pony up the cash for the spectrum and then strike an exclusive deal. G-Phone talk aside, Apple would be a logical choice. Despite how badly Google wants to push its various hardware and software projects, the company still draws virtually all of its income from ad revenue.

It would seem to be a perfect match: Apple provides the killer app, Google provides the backbone, reporters guaranteed a steady flow of stories for the next five years.