The FCC Advanced Wireless Services auction of radio spectrum has ended, with 104 bidders spending almost fourteen billion dollars for the right to use frequency allotments made available by realignment of radio applications. Auctioned off were 1087 licenses for spectrum slices across the United States, with varying geographical scope. The bidding ended on September 18th.

Big bidders included T-Mobile (owned by Deutsch Telekomm AG), Verizon Wireless, and Spectrum LLC, a consortium of cable companies led by Comcast. Missing after the first week’s bidding were satellite TV companies DirecTV and EchoStar.

T-Mobile, the fourth-largest wireless provider offered $4.2B for 120 licenses spanning the country in a bid to fill out spectrum shortages. Verizon, the nation’s second largest provider, put up $2.8B for 13 licenses, and the Comcast consortium bid $2.4B. Half of the successful bidders were small business entities, according to the FCC.

Each winner must now make their down payments. License grants are dependent on timely payments and filings. After they’ve made down payments, winners can publicly describe what they intend to do with their newly bought spectrum. Until then anti-collusion rules proscribe such disclosure.

The spectrum will likely be used for a variety of purposes, including video, voice, data and other wireless broadband services over Third Generation (“3G”) mobile networks.

The next major spectrum auction will be frequency slots opened up as broadcast television stations complete their move to digital TV. No specific dates have been set, but Congress requires the auction to begin by Jan. 28, 2008.