While all versions of Reuters’ stories in the US, Canada, and the UK had been yanked from online access for unexplained reasons at the time of this writing, GigaOM’s Paul Kapustka apparently reporting from the conference itself gave an account that validated the spirit of the Reuters report, citing Schmidt as saying his company would “probably” place a bid. Reuters had quoted Schmidt as responding to T-Mobile’s question about whether Google would bid by saying that placing a bid “probably would be the way to answer that.” T-Mobile is itself a likely bidder in this auction.

A revision to the spectrum allocation map the FCC originally drew up, which was also approved last month, seemed to work against Google’s original intentions, as the big block of space it originally had its heart set on is no longer being sold off in one big chunk.

But since Commissioner Robert McDowell’s startling admission last month that no potential bidders had expressed interest in bidding under the rules the FCC did adopt, Google may have warmed up to the idea of placing a bid anyway. In which case, the company may not have to put up the full $4.6 billion – it’s under no obligations at present to bid that high.

According to GigaOM’s Kapustka, the provision the FCC did adopt – which was dubbed the “Cart-a-Phone” provision by FCC chief Kevin Martin, who also took credit for conceiving it – ended up being “a pretty good outcome. But it’s important that the choice be possible.”