I asked the question in September, and I’ll ask it again: Do we really need live TV on our cell phones? AT&T, the largest U.S. carrier, says we do.

AT&T said Thursday it will offer live mobile TV service from MediaFLO in May through two handsets — the LG Vu and the Samsung Access. Subscribers willing to pony up the extra bucks (prices won’t be announced until later) will receive eight channels of live TV plus two exclusive channels in select markets.

AT&T offers everything from music to Web surfing is looking to live mobile TV as a way to earn additional revenue, something all the carriers desire as cell phone call prices continue to fall. Rival Verizon, the No. 2 U.S. carrier, already offers broadcast mobile TV through V-Cast.

I’m still shaking my head over this one. Motorola, one of the stalwarts of the mobile communications industry, will split into two publicly traded companies in 2009, one for its profitable infrastructure equipment, the other for its not-so-profitable mobile handsets.

How did this happen?

And what does it mean for the mobile industry?

I’ll let Wall Street debate the finer details of how Motorola’s crash-and-burn happened, but it comes as no surprise. I’ve been watching Motorola lose its grip in the mobile industry for almost three years, since the heady days of the Razr.

Back in 2005, Motorola introduced the Razr as an exclusive fashion phone costing $600 with a service plan, $800 without — and people complained that Apple’s iPhone was too expensive at its introduction. Like the iPhone, the Razr was the must-have geek toy of its time.

In 2006, however, Motorola allowed the Razr to enter the mass market as a mid-price (then super-cheap) phone, which lessened its must-have coolness and social impact. It seemed every snot-nosed kid at the mall had a Razr stuffed in a back pocket.

The jockeying for position is over. It’s time for the U.S. carriers, the world’s handset manufacturers, and third-party application developers to innovate the mobile wireless future.

Today the U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced that the big winners in the 700 MHz wireless spectrum auction were, indeed, Verizon and AT&T, the two biggest players in the industry.

Verizon won the coveted C-block for $4.74 billion, besting Google’s bid of $4.71 billion. Going into the spectrum bid, which began at the end of January, many industry followers had hoped that Google would take its bid seriously as a way to shake up a stagnant industry.

Google committed to bidding the minimum of $4.66 billion, which triggered a rule that the winner of the 700 MHz C-block spectrum would have to open its network to any device, any application. Just by bidding, Google dictated the new rules of the game — rules that Verizon must now follow.

AT&T won 227 regional licenses around the U.S. Those licenses, along with the piece of the 700 MHz puzzle it already owned, allows AT&T to further enhance the quality and reliability of its existing network and wireless broadband.

“It means that the two big guys just got much bigger,” Rebecca Arbogast, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus, told Reuters.

It also means that the jockeying for position is now officially over. The remainder of 2008 will be for the carriers, handset manufacturers, and application developers to introduce their initial products — and you can bet these will be far from perfect. There will be missteps, misfirings, false starts, claims of so-and-so being unfair, buggy software, crappy hardware, and disappointment, but these are the growing pains of an industry in transition

2009 is still the Year of Wireless.

For now, with the auction over, here’s how the U.S. wireless industry shapes up for the remainder of 2008.

I know you can’t wait — it’s better than who is going to make it to the Final Four. OK, not really, but the largest and most lucrative wireless spectrum auction in U.S. history ended today, and we’ll know within 10 days who won the coveted C-block.

Presumably it’s Verizon, the No. 2 U.S. carrier, and not “telecom” upstart Google, but who knows? Maybe there is a surprise or two in the final results. Or not.

Even so, the auction will bring in $19.5 billion for the Federal Communications Commission, with $4.744 coming from the C-block winner. The winner can claim its prize within the year and start building that super-duper, next-gen, open-access wireless network we’ve been hearing about.

All in all, the event took 38 days to complete with 261 rounds of bidding. For a blow-by-blow account, see RCR Wireless News.

Android has landed. And it looks like, well, some sort of space alien.

Several companies at this week’s Mobile World Congress unveiled prototypes of Android, Google’s highly anticipated, open-source operating system. But rather than showing off sleek, sexy cell phones, with a super-fast OS running groundbreaking applications, attendees were treated to reality.

Android, for now, is mostly a bunch of circuit boards, displays, solder, prototype “phones”, and “alpha” applications intended to show the mobile world that yes, in fact, Android and the so-called Gphones do exist and, to some degree, work. They’re not vaporware.

“It’s not fair to laugh at the huge circuit boards: These are design prototypes and will of course be shrunk down to a fraction of this size,” Charlie Sorrel writes for the Wired’s gadget lab.

“But despite the fugly appearance, these Android phones are the buzz of the show. At the NEC booth, the guy pointed me straight past the other boards saying, ‘This one is the Android. That’s the only one anybody is interested in.’”

So, without further ado, here’s Android in all its, uh, splendor.

The Modu modular cell phone is a really interesting idea. Its timing may be perfect, or not. It may spawn its own ecosystem, or not. It’s design, interface, and support products may hit the bulls-eye, or be total cheese.

But you’ve got to give Israeli startup Modu credit for trying something different. Modu is introducing a tiny modular phone that can be slipped into different “jackets” to give the base phone additional features and functions depending on the user’s needs.

Basic “jackets” may include an MP3 sleeve, turning the phone into a digital music player. Or a GPS device. Or a digital camera for wireless image transfers. Or an alarm clock interface. Or with a larger screen, a video playback device. The possibilities are plentiful.

The phone module weights just 1.3 ounces and is smaller than a credit card. It will launch Oct. 1 with mobile carriers in Russia, Italy, and Israel, but not in the U.S. or elsewhere in Europe at this time. It will be on display next week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

If Verizon Wireless is truly the winner of the FCC’s 700 MHz spectrum auction, as many industry experts now believe, the No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier must live up to its promises.

Promise: On Dec. 4, Verizon said it would support the Google-led Open Handset Alliance. By doing so, Verizon, a notoriously protective carrier known for its iron-fisted rule over the devices and software applications running on its network, said it would support the open network initiative.

Promise: At the same time, Verizon said it would support the Google-powered open-source mobile operating system Android. By doing so, Verizon said it was willing to allow phones from any manufacturer — even those using the Android platform — to run on its network as long as they meet Verizon quality specifications.

Promise (and one it can’t worm out of): If Verizon does win the C block in the 700 MHz spectrum auction, it must — as a stipulation set forth in pre-auction rules — open the new network to any phone running any software.

Forbes speculates that “analysts believe Verizon — thought to be the only bidder besides Google that is both rich and motivated enough — is poised to win the coveted C block of spectrum that Google has been eyeing.”

For those of you playing along at home, the Federal Communication Commission’s 700 MHz spectrum bidding reached an important milestone today: The FCC received a bid of $4.71 billion, surpassing the $4.68 billion minimum and setting in motion events that could have profound changes on the U.S. wireless industry.

With the minimum now achieved, the winner must abide by the “open access” rules the FCC agreed to last summer, meaning that the winner will have to allow consumers to use any handset or software application on the spectrum purchased.

Funny, but no one is celebrating in the streets outside.

Anyway, who made the $4.71 billion bid remains a mystery. There’s plenty of speculation all over the Web (here, here, here), but Saul Hansell of The New York Times seems to have the best grasp of what’s going on. Suffice to say, early analysis has Verizon, the No. 2 U.S. carrier, and newcomer Google punching it out for the coveted C Block, with No.1 carrier AT&T in the mix somewhere.

Without full media access, the 700 MHz spectrum auction is a game of pure speculation because the participants — and for our purpose that’s Google, Verizon, and AT&T — cannot talk about their bids until the auction is over, whenever that will be.

Suffice to say, by reaching the open access milestone, a new market has just been launched. For those scoring at home, put a “W” next to consumers, handset manufacturers, and third-party software developers and a ? next to Google, Verizon, and AT&T.

Looks like the rumors and back-room talk about Motorola are true: The company is looking to spin off (or “strategically realign”) its Mobile Devices business, or sell it outright.

Which begs the question: How the heck did Motorola — the company that delivered the first commercial portable cellular phone in 1983 — get to this point? Or, more recently, how did the company that made cell phones fashionable and highly desirable with the Razr and Krzr fall so low as to even think about selling off its Mobile Devices division?

As a friend who works at Motorola told me today, “Can you imagine Motorola not playing in that space anymore? That’s f***** up.”