Spectrum Auction Raises $19.6 Billion

[March 19, 2008]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bidding has closed on a record-setting government airwaves auction, with the total amount pledged reaching nearly $19.6 billion. But enthusiasm in the result was tempered by doubts concerning the future of a proposed emergency communications network.

The total was the most bid since the Federal Communications Commission began using auctions in 1994 to decide who should be granted rights to use the publicly owned airwaves.

About one-sixth of the spectrum at auction was dedicated to the creation of an emergency communications network for first responders. But the so-called D block did not attract the minimum bid required by FCC auction rules.

[Associated Press; By JOHN DUNBAR]

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