Google has officially announced that it will bid in the 700 MHz spectrum auction, which is scheduled to take place in late January. The announcement ends months of debate over whether Google would still bid in the auction even though the FCC only adopted two of its four "open access" provisions. Google promised to commit a minimum bid of $4.6 billion if the FCC adopted all four. The four provisions were: open applications, open devices, open services and open networks. The FCC will require the winning bidder of a slice of the upper C-Block spectrum to allow any application and any device on its network. "We believe it's important to put our money where our principles are," Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt said in a statement. "Consumers deserve more competition and innovation than they have in today's wireless world. No matter which bidder ultimately prevails, the real winners of this auction are American consumers who likely will see more choices than ever before in how they access the Internet." For more on Google's intent to bid: - read this press release