Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group, was seen by analysts as the most likely winner of a nationwide piece of the airwaves called the "C" block that attracted a $4.74 billion high bid, Reuters reported. "This is spectrum that's obviously ... very valuable -- will be critical to trying to provide additional wireless broadband services," FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said after the auction ended, according to Reuters.

Winners of the spectrum were not announced. Potential winners of the auction, that began January 24 and went through 260 rounds of bidding, include entrenched carriers like AT&T and possibly new competitors like Google, EchoStar Communications and Cablevision Systems, Reuters said.

Google and other companies that pushed for open-access rules were rewarded as the C block spectrum includes a requirement that would make it accessible to any device or software application. Google's continued development of its Android mobile platform has attracted software developers and carriers and is expected to spur competition with established mobile network services.

The winners of the hundreds of licenses were expected to be announced within days. Martin said the announcement would come after the FCC's four other commissioners approved an order he said is needed to formally end the auction, Reuters said. Under rules set by the FCC, bidders' identities have been kept secret during the auction.

The 700-megahertz spectrum is being returned by television broadcasters as they move to digital from analog signals in early 2009. The signals are valuable because they can go long distances and penetrate thick wall, Reuters said.

The order Martin has proposed to end the auction would "de-link" the one block of airwaves that did not meet its minimum bid requirement -- the "D" block -- from the rest of the spectrum. Under FCC rules, the winner of the D block would have had to give police, firefighters and other public safety groups priority use during an emergency.

The FCC could decide to re-auction the D-block airwaves and possibly modify the rules and the minimum price to make it more attractive to potential bidders, according to Reuters. FCC officials have declined to comment specifically on what they will do.

Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of the citizens' group Public Knowledge, said the introduction of public access provisions was a postive outcome of the auction, but the lack of interest in the "D" block was troublesome.

"The Federal Communications Commission's spectrum auction produced some good results for consumers. While the open access provisions weren't all that we would have liked, consumers will have the benefit of some device and applications flexibility that they wouldn't have had otherwise," Sohn said in a statement. "However, the lack of activity in the 'D' block that would have supported public safety activity raises some cause for concern. Following reports that Frontline dropped out of the auction as a result of alleged conditions put on the block by the public safety community, we urge the Commission to look into the auction results."