Google did not win any licenses in the FCC's auction of valuable spectrum in the 700-MHz range, which concluded last week. But that doesn't mean the search company has given up on plans to create a wireless broadband network using available spectrum.

Building on its previous discussions with federal policymakers, Google has submitted a proposal to the FCC for allowing the airwaves between television broadcast channels -- the so-called "white space" -- to be used for mobile broadband services. Google is part of a coalition of tech companies, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft, and the North American unit of Philips Electronics, that has been lobbying the FCC to allow unlicensed use of white-space spectrum to provide wireless service to customers and businesses.

Broadcasters and makers of wireless microphones have opposed those schemes, saying that interference from wireless Internet-access traffic would disrupt their own signals.

In its new filing, Google maintains that a combination of geo-location technology and wireless protective beacons "will eliminate any remaining legitimate concerns about the merits of using the white space for unlicensed personal/portable devices." Motorola submitted a similar proposal last year that advocates such a protection plan.

"Under our own enhanced protection proposal," wrote Richard Whitt, Google's chief telecom lobbyist in Washington, D.C., "a TV white space device will not transmit on a channel until it first has received an 'all clear' signal for that channel, either directly from a database of licensed transmitters in that area, or from a geo-located device with access to that database."

Google also proposes a "dynamic auction" setup whereby access to the airwaves can be sold and distributed on a real-time basis, via an Internet clearinghouse, similar to the way Google sells its search ads.

Google is thought to have been a bidder in the recently concluded 700 MHz auction, specifically on the so-called "C block," the most highly valued slice of spectrum. The company did not place any winning bids, however, and its pledge of $4.6 billion in bidding in the auction was most likely a way of ensuring that the FCC's open-access rules were enforced on the actual winner. Verizon Wireless placed the winning bid of $4.75 billion for the C block.

While its new plan calls for a new wireless broadband network utilizing the white space, it's still not clear that Google wishes to become a network operator. In its filing, the company said it would "be willing to provide, at no cost to third parties, the technical support necessary to make these plans happen." That support could include "intellectual property and reference designs for underlying technologies, open geo-databases maintained by Google, and other supporting infrastructure."

A wireless network on the white-space spectrum "would be akin to a faster, longer-range, higher data rate Wi-Fi service," Whitt claimed. "Wi-Fi 2.0, if you will."