Google has said that it will take part in the forthcoming auction of American radio spectrum, signifying a new push by the company into the wireless network market.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will begin to auction the 700 Mhz spectrum in January as part of the US switchover to digital television, a result of which is that spectrum used for broadcast TV will be freed up.

Google has long expressed an interest in the auction, which it hopes will enable greater competition between companies hoping to deliver wireless-based internet services — such as its own — to customers on their mobile phones.

Today the search company said that it will bid, having successfully lobbied the FCC to impose certain conditions on the sale, including the requirement that networks offering services on the new spectrum should remain 'open'. Many existing mobile internet services are closed systems that will only work with certain devices and service providers.

Google did not say how much it would pay, but the auction is expected to raise $15 billion (£7.2 billion) for the US Government

In August, the FCC approved rules for the auction which stipulated that at least a third of the networks that use the spectrum — referred to as 'the last beachfront property in the radio spectrum' — will be open to any device that users choose.

This, Google and others say, will stimulate greater competition and innovation among mobile phone manufacturers and software companies offering services on the spectrum, which will offer broadband-speed connections.

At present, mobile phone carriers — such as Verizon — which control the existing spectrum, tend to decide which devices will be allowed on their networks, thereby controlling which services customers have access to.

The new rules will mean that if Verizon, one of the main carriers, were to win the auction, customers would pay to access the network but would be free to use a handset of their choice.

A second request by Google, which would have required the winner of the auction to sell access to the network on a wholesale basis to other companies, was turned down by the FCC.

"Consumers deserve more competition and innovation than they have in today's wireless world, and no matter which bidder prevails, American consumers will see more choices than ever before in how they access the internet," Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, said.

A reserve price of $4.6 billion (£2.2 billion) has been set for the auction, which begins on January 24.

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