With the closing of the 52th round of bidding, the FCC’s Advanced Wireless Spectrum (AWS) auction today approached $13.5B in total amount bid. The net total is a bit less since credits for small companies reduces the amount that they pay.

Bidding began on August 9 and will continue with two rounds daily until no new bids are submitted.

1,122 licenses are for sale in this auction, ranging from a modest 10MHz frequency slice serving Wyoming up to licenses covering the northeast United States. Prices range from $7,200 to $1.335B, respectively.

Top bidders include Cingular, T-Mobile, and Verizon, competing to offer so-called "3G" services, combining mobile phone, laptop, and video. Some companies want to deny spectrum to their competitors.

FCC auctions are complex, high stakes affairs. Past auctions have been marred by accusations of hidden proxies, collusion, and rigged bidding strategies.

Starting in 1984, under instruction from Congress, the FCC periodically auctions off spectrum as frequencies became available from reallocations and improved technology.

Before then, allocations were free, but subject to intense negotiation with the FCC. Television stations got huge blocks of frequency for analog broadcasting. With the advent of digital broadcasting they must return the freed spectrum. The transition is scheduled to conclude by February of 2009.