After much speculation and talk, the New York Times is reporting that Google has officially announced their entry in the spectrum auction and will file papers on Monday, December 3.

The auction starts in January but will take months to complete. Along with phone carriers such as AT&T and Verizon, Google will be bidding on the 700 megahertz spectrum that the television networks are leaving behind in their move towards digital.

Whoever wins this auction will be required to allow access to any compatible device with any software application, thus moving the U.S. closer to the mobile markets of Europe and Asia. There, phones are years ahead of ours in terms of features and functionality and, in some cases, are even replacing PCs. Japan, for example, has seen a decrease in PC sales due to advanced mobile features (as well as more PC-like gaming consoles such as the Xbox 360 and PS3)—the first such decrease in the last 25 years.