The Federal Communications Commission didn’t get what they expected on the governmental auction of the 700MHz wireless spectrum band, falling short of the initially minimum bet set by FCC by more than $3 billion in the first round. The second-round bids rose 15 percent, reaching $2.78 billion, from the previous round, FCC acknowledged on their web site, without giving details on the companies that made the bids.

It doesn’t look like a promising start for FCC, as it was hoping to receive winning bids of at least $10 billion, possibly $15 million. Partially responsible for the situation could be the market decline, which prevented many potential bidders from offering as much as they intended in the first place. This could result in a shortage of $2-3 billion from the initial projections.

The identity of the companies involved in the bid will not be unveiled before the end of the auction, FCC stated, but among the names expected to participate are first of all AT&T Inc and Verizon Wireless, and possibly Google Inc, EchoStar Communications Corp and Cablevision Systems Corp. the purpose of the auction is to sell a spectrum that would enable carriers to offer consumers more up-to-date wireless services, such as broadband access through mobile phones or wireless broadband on laptop computers.

The electronic auction includes five blocks, and of the $2.78 billion worth of opening, $472 millions were offered for the “D” block and $1.04 billion for the “C” block, which requires being open to all devices and software applications. The advantage of the 700MHz spectrum is that they can go long distances and penetrate through thick walls.

The auction is expected to continue within the next weeks or perhaps months, and will be declared closed when no further bids will be submitted. The bid rounds will continue daily and all five blocks will remain available for sale. FCC will publicly announce the results on their web site, approximately 10 minutes after the bids are close for the day.