US regulators on Tuesday handed mobile handset and internet companies a partial victory over the country’s wireless communications carriers as they voted to free some of the country’s wireless spectrum to let consumers use more devices and mobile applications of their choice.

However, the Federal Communications Commission stopped short of adopting a more far-reaching and controversial Google proposal that had become the focal point for the internet company’s first big foray in Washington, but which had provoked angry reactions from the wireless industry establishment.