But one thing that everyone has been underestimating here is the will of the American people. We have seen so much press and coverage on this issue that we're starting to understand the frustration with mobile services that American consumers feel. You can't really find anyone who is satisfied with their mobile service right now. When you start talking to people, and they start to see the issues at stake, that is when we start to see the impetus for real change. I expect the change to impact well beyond the 700MHz auction as consumers become more aware of their options and start to demand improvement.

    Chairman Martin has rarely proposed any regulation that could hurt the phone companies. Do you think his proposal was an empty attempt to show that he cares about consumers?

    Sacca: No, I think he is trying to balance a lot of different interests. And so far, I think he has done a pretty good job. But as more and more people come up to speed on the nuances of this debate, I think we are starting to see consumers feel more empowered to express themselves and to demand the service that they really deserve.

    Does the 700MHz auction plan fit into Google's citywide Wi-Fi plans at all? For example, is this a way to knit Google's citywide networks into a bigger nationwide network?

    Sacca: I started the citywide Wi-Fi project not to become an ISP (Internet service provider), but because we saw that entrepreneurs around the country were willing to take the entrepreneurial risk to build networks and grant customers a meaningful alternative choice of access in what for most of the country is a duopoly but for half the country is just one or zero broadband access providers.

    And yet incumbents were suing the cities, who were collaborating with entrepreneurs to try to build Wi-Fi access across their cities. I was frustrated by that, so I said, "Let's go ahead and show the country that these networks work. And we can act as a model to hopefully inspire development in other places." So far, we have seen 400-plus cities build out these networks.