Google filed a proposal on Monday with the Federal Communications Commission calling on the agency to let companies allocate radio spectrum using the same kind of real-time auction that the search engine company now uses to sell advertisements.

Executives at Google, based in the Mountain View, Calif., said that the company had no plans to bid in the closely watched sale of a swath of broadcast spectrum scheduled for February 2009 as part of the nation’s transition to digital broadcast television.

The company, the world’s dominant search engine, has, however, become an active participant in the debate over the control of access to broadband digital networks because it wants to create more competition among digital network providers like cable companies and Internet service providers.

The Google filing comes two days before a deadline for public comments set in an FCC rule-making procedure for the sale of spectrum in the 700 MHz band, now largely used by UHF television broadcasters.

Posted: 05|22|07 at 8:06 am. Filed under: US News.