After 161 rounds of bidding over 28 days, the FCC has closed this summer's auction of radio spectrum for 3G services. The auction - also known as Auction 66 - raised $13.7 billion dollars for the government. T-Mobile spent $4.2 billion for licenses covering nearly the whole country. Leap (who offers flat-rate service under the Cricket brand) and an affiliated bidder won licenses covering 176 million people. MetroPCS won licenses covering more than 144 million people. Sprint Nextel's joint venture with several cable companies came away with spectrum covering 267 million potential customers, costing $2.4 billion. Verizon Wireless spent $2.8 billion for 20 MHz of spectrum covering the U.S. east of the Mississippi River, plus additional licenses in Louisiana, Hawaii and Arkansas. Cingular won regional licenses in the West and Central United States, plus spectrum in markets such as Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Boston, Dallas - Ft. Worth and Atlanta. Dobson bid $65.9 million on 85 licenses. A company backed by U.S. Cellular, won spectrum in markets such as Tulsa, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and a regional Mississippi Valley license.
