By Michal Lev-Ram

The Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday that Verizon Wireless was the biggest winner in the recently-closed government auction of 700MHz wireless spectrum.

FCC records show that Verizon bid an estimated $9.5 billion for the airwaves, which will become available next year and are well-suited for broadband services.

The company won the majority of large licenses in the coveted C block of the spectrum, in addition to a significant number of smaller licenses in the A and B blocks. A total of five blocks of spectrum were up for bid and the FCC took in $19.6 billion in the auction.

In a statement issued Thursday, Verizon (VZ) said it was “very pleased” with the results of the auction and that the new spectrum would help “grow our business and data revenues.”

AT&T (T) won 227 small licenses and said that, combined with airwaves the company purchased earlier this year from a Providence, Rhode Island-based company called Aloha Partners, its 700MHz spectrum will now cover 200 top U.S. markets.

Google (GOOG), however, didn’t win any licenses. Last year the search giant said it would put up the minimum bid for the C block portion of spectrum to ensure the success of a FCC requirement that the new network be open to any mobile device and not just those sanctioned by the carrier.

But one newcomer did manage to make the cut — satellite television provider Dish Network (DISH) won enough licenses to provide a nearly nationwide network. According to Citigroup analyst Jason Bazinet, it’s likely the company will use the spectrum to roll out a mobile video service.

By Michal Lev-Ram

After nearly eight weeks and 261 rounds of bidding, the government’s spectrum auction finally ended Tuesday.

In January,  the Federal Communications Commission began auctioning off the coveted 700MHz spectrum, which is particularly suited for broadband services and is the last major chunk of nationwide spectrum.  The FCC had hoped to raise at least $10 billion from the auction, but as the last bid came in late Tuesday the total reached $19.6 billion. The auction attracted companies such as Verizon (VZ), Google (GOOG), AT&T (T) and Qualcomm (QCOM).  The spectrum is currently used for television, which will give up the airwaves in 2009 when TV broadcasting goes digital.

As this was a “blind” auction, the bidders’ identities were kept secret.  But the winners won’t be revealed until all five blocks of spectrum up for auction are accounted for — the so-called D block, which was set aside for a nationwide public safety network, failed to raise the minimum price set by the FCC. Analysts say it’s likely the government will separate the D block from the rest of the auction and put it up for sale again  so they can collect the money for the other blocks.