Put up or shut up

OK, so the Google story gets better: In case you haven't read the story, the FCC will announce on Tuesday the rules for its latest (and for some time, its last) auction of mobile spectrum. Google has thrown its hat into the ring, but is asking that the spectrum be opened to all comers, rather than a limited number of big-budget players.

Google has spend at least $4.6 billion on auctioned-off mobile spectrum if the FCC will agree to follow some of Google's suggestions about opening up access to that spectrum.

But here's the part I like: AT&T, in an apparent challenge to Google's affront to their position, essentially told Google to put up or shut up. Google's response?

[Google] has offered to spend at least $4.6 billion for the airwaves it would use to build the network it envisions if the FCC's rules work in its favor.

I think that qualifies as "put up."

I first heard about this in an interview on NPR. Robert Siegel talks with Chris Sacca, head of Special Initiatives at Google. He throws down in a way only Google can:

Any time that Americans have the choice to go where they want on the internet, they've shown that more times than not they choose to go to Google.

That's... umm... well, a nice position to be in, I suppose. And a powerful statement of the power of Google.

What I like most about their play is that it will eventually push the mobile carriers toward a more open attitude toward letting users use the internet, choose their apps, and in general choose what they do with their phones.

Ss.