Google is still leaning toward bidding in the U.S. mobile phone airwave auctions in January after the FCC detailed its plans for the spectrum.

At a conference of regulatory leaders in Aspen, Colo., Reuters reported that Google CEO Eric Schmidt said his company would "probably" move ahead with plans to bid for wireless spectrum that's ideal for providing wireless broadband access.

I asked Rick Whitt, Google's telecom and media counsel in Washington, D.C., a few weeks ago whether Google was going to participate. The company had said it would bid $4.6 billion in the auction as long as the FCC agreed to designate the spectrum for open access. The FCC agreed to some of Google's conditions, but not all.

Whitt said Google had to take into consideration the rules the FCC was laying out and how the bidding would take place before he could say for sure.

Reuters said it was Bellevue-based T-Mobile USA government relations chief Thomas Sugrue who asked at the conference whether Google planned to take part in the auction.

Schmidt replied: "Probably would be the way to answer that."