Comcast and Time Warner have just declared their total disinterest in the upcoming 700MHz auction. Not that they mattered anyway—the real behind-closed-doors fireworks looked to be between Google and Verizon, who've been publicly sparring over the auction rules for a while. But that might not be the case.
Google's coming out statement—essentially "whoever wins, everybody does"— was noticeably limp. No fire in their words probably signals no fire in their bid, basically.
On the other hand, Verizon throwing open its network is a decidedly hard throwdown with regard to its auction intentions. The winner of the 700MHz's contentious C Block is required to have such an open network (though only on that chunk), meaning Verizon may be strongly signaling its intent to bid and win. Gird your loins for endless "It's the Network" catchphrases, just in case. [MocoNews, CNN]