The nation's two largest wireless companies emerged as the biggest winners in a record-setting auction of public airwaves, increasing the odds that they will continue to dominate that market for years to come.
Verizon Wireless agreed to pay more than $9 billion of the $19 billion raised for government coffers and got the largest chunks of the spectrum, which it is expected to use for such high-volume transmissions as video and corporate data.
AT&T Inc., the only carrier larger than Verizon, will pay more than $6 billion for new slices of the spectrum, according to figures released Thursday by the Federal Communications Commission. It won licenses to use smaller parts of the airwaves, but AT&T noted that it recently bought $2.5 billion worth of more-valuable spectrum in a private sale.
The just-concluded auction covers licenses to transmit and receive electronic signals of different frequencies in various regions.
Consumer advocates said they were disappointed that no major new companies emerged. They hoped that the strong signals up for grabs -- currently used by television stations but due to be returned to the government in 2009 as the stations complete their switch to digital signals -- would provide a third high-speed data pipe to homes, rivaling DSL and cable.
But both AT&T and Verizon co-owner Verizon Communications Inc. already offer DSL service.
"It was the only place on the wireless spectrum where you could possibly have a third pipe, and they didn't get that. That's a big failure," said Ben Scott, Washington policy director of Free Press, a nonprofit group opposed to media consolidation.
Industry experts said it was hardly a surprise.
"It amazes me that people think that when you have networks already in the ground, new companies can just come in and have a chance," said wireless researcher and consultant Andrew Seybold.
Google Inc. had caused a stir when it asked the FCC to require that winners of the most valuable pieces of the spectrum auction rent transmission rights to outsiders. The industry powerhouses beat back that idea.
In a compromise, Google agreed to put down a minimum $4.6-billion bid for that part of the auction if the FCC would at least require the winners to grant any cellphone or similar device access to their network. That should help the Internet search leader, which wants to sell software to phone makers and sell ads on Web pages displayed to mobile users.
