HTC's Nexus One, or the Google phone was approved on Monday by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission after HTC Corp., a Taiwan-based manufacturer of smartphones, filed for permission for the phone.

The first details and specs of Google's phone appeared on the FCC website. According to the 100 page filing - the Nexus One, under model number PB99100 - features Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and expandable storage through a microSD memory card, as well as fast web access.

In a bid to increase its competition against the smartphone market leader, Apple's iPhone, the Nexus One will support both AT&T and T-Mobile 3G data in the US.

Other features of the Google phone include quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and comes with UMTS/HSUPA, the frequencies used for this is 850/1700/1900. This means that the Nexus One is capable of 7.2Mbps download speeds and 2MBps upload.

The phone will be sold online by Google and according to Wired, it will be unlocked, allowing Google to have more control over the hardware and software without having too much network carrier interference.

Google posted a message on its Mobile Blog on Saturday, which ambiguously referred to a new mobile phone 'concept' device that Google's employees had been given to test.

Nexus One combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, Mario Queiroz, a Google vice president of product management wrote in the post.

Over the weekend, the first image of the Nexus One was posted on Twitter by Cory O'Brien, an account manager at a San Francisco Bay Area marketing agency. He tweeted that the Google phone is like the Apple iPhone but with a little extra screen and a scroll wheel.

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