Google on Thursday admitted that its ultimate goal in the recent 700 MHz spectrum auction was to drive up the price of the c-block, but denied that it had no intention of placing serious bids.

"Google's top priority heading into the auction was to make sure that bidding on the so-called C-Block reached the $4.6 billion reserve price that would trigger the important 'open applications' and 'open handsets' license conditions," Richard Whitt, Washington telecom and media counsel and Joseph Faber, corporate counsel, wrote in a blog post.

But Google was prepared to purchase C-block licenses "at a price somewhat higher than the reserve price," they wrote. "In fact, for many days during the early course of the auction, we were the high bidder."

Verizon Wireless, however, was "ultimately was motivated to bid higher, and had far more financial incentive to gain the licenses."

The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) 700 MHz spectrum auction concluded on March 18 after nearly eight weeks of continuous bidding with $19.6 billion in bids. Verizon and AT&T were the big winners, with Verizon winning most of the C-block. Last year, Google pushed the FCC to make the C-block open to all applications and devices. The commission granted that request, provided bidding on the spectrum reach a reserve price of $4.6 billion.

Though bidding ended several weeks ago and the FCC revealed the names of the winners shortly thereafter, the commission's anti-collusion rules prevented any of the 214 approved bidders from commenting on the proceedings until 6 p.m. EST Thursday.

Verizon will hold a conference call Friday morning about the auction results. AT&T did not respond by press time.

Though Google did not place any winning bids on the spectrum, "partly as a result of our bidding, consumers soon should have new freedom to get the most out of their mobile phones and other wireless devices," Whitt and Faber wrote.

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