The rules aim to boost consumer choice by requiring the winner of the so-called C-block airwaves to let any legal wireless handset or program use the network. Google, owner of the most popular Internet search engine, may now exit the auction after winning the conditions, said Jeff Lindsay, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York.

``What people don't know now is if Google will drop out of the bidding and allow someone else to win,'' Lindsay said today in an interview. ``It's a totally different scenario if Google goes all the way.''

The total value of all bids climbed 4.3 percent to $15.6 billion in the latest round, exceeding government projections and making the airwaves sale the largest ever in the U.S.

Google, AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless are among 214 companies participating in the auction, which includes 1,099 slices of spectrum. The C-block comprises about a third of the airwaves, which will become available when television broadcasters switch to digital signals in 2009.

Likely Bidders

Opening the network to more devices would help Mountain View, California-based Google sell more advertising on phones by expanding consumers' access to mobile Web content. Google and Verizon Wireless are likely bidders for the C-block, Stifel Nicolaus & Co. analyst Blair Levin said today in a note.

``We know that the C-block will have a winner, and that the open-access conditions will be triggered, but we cannot know now who that winner is,'' Levin said.

Google rose $16.03 to $564.30 at 4 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. AT&T gained $1.14 to $38.49 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Verizon Communications Inc., which owns Verizon Wireless with Vodafone Group Plc, advanced 53 cents to $38.77.

Google spokesman Adam Kovacevich and Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeffrey Nelson declined to comment, citing FCC rules that bar participants from discussing the auction.

Source:  Bloomberg Inc.