The clear winner out of this monster auction was obviously FCC itself, scoring more than $19.8 Billion from frequency-hungry-bidders.

The bid that everyone was waiting Google to win was actually won by Verizon Wireless, who bid $4,74 Billion, against Google’s $4,71 Billion. The reason everyone was making a fuss is Google’s uprising in the mobile phone industry with the launch of Google Android, the possession of the 700MHz spectrum could enable Google to create their own network which would give more possibilities to their upcoming Operating System.

More than 1000 licences were auctioned, including regional ones from $17 000 to a billion dollars.

The 700MHz was previously used for analog television broadcasting, but as digital television is taking over, this spectrum is no longer needed.

The other major winner was AT&T, gaining access to 227 regional licences. We can expect many more products and services from the winners, and some of the newbies as well. Improvements on internet and other data usage is a must, and cheaper voice calls might also be in the basket.

Source: IntoMobile, Wikipedia