After nearly two months, the Federal Communication Commissions 700MHz spectrum auction has come to an end. Bidding far exceeded the FCC's preauction hopes of $10 billion to $15 billion, with the final tally coming in at $19,592,420,000. The auction ended this afternoon with a terse announcement by the Commission that there were no "bids, withdrawals, or proactive activity rule waivers" during round 261. "Therefore, Auction 73 has closed under the simultaneous stopping rule."

The auction topped the $19 billion mark back in early February, so bidding since then has been slow, to say the least. Of the two most closely watched chunks of spectrum in the auction, Blocks C and De, only C hit the FCC's reserve price. Block D fell over $800 million short of the FCC's minimum.

Block C, which had some notable open access rules attached to it, passed the FCC's $4.638 billion reserve price on the final day of January. A $4.744 billion bid pushed it past the threshold, but that was the final bid on the nationwide license for Block C. Afterwards, Block C bidding moved to regional licenses, which could be used separately or combined to form a single, nationwide network.

Block D never saw any action after an initial $472 million bid. That chunk of spectrum was supposed to be used for both a commercial broadband service and a nationwide emergency communications network. Frontline Wireless was expected to be a major player for Block D, but it dropped out before the auction began. With the Block D reserve unmet, the FCC has the option of auctioning it off again with different rules or a lower reserve.

Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, called on the FCC rethink the reserve requirement for Block D, and whether the public safety spectrum model should be "retained or modified."

Like the rest of us, Rep. Markey is eager to find out who the big winners are. "I also am eager to ascertain the extent to which new entrants have succeeded in obtaining licenses through this auction," he said in a statement released after the auction closed.

One of those new entrants may be Google, which was one of the companies approved for participation in the auction. It's more likely that one of the major wireless players like Verizon will walk away with Block C; however, the FCC is expected to release the identities of the winning bidders soon.

The spectrum itself will not become available until after analog television transmissions are ended in February 2009. Once the spectrum is freed up, it may take the winners some time to build out their networks.