Douglas County-based EchoStar Communications and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen were among those applying to bid for wireless airwaves in a U.S. auction next month, vying with Google and more than 250 other groups in what may be the last sale of its kind for years.
Cable-TV company Cox Communications also applied to bid. The companies, which combine TV service with home phones and Internet access, may be trying to add mobile-phone service to their offerings.
Many companies want the spectrum so they can sell services that use more bandwidth, such as video downloads and Web surfing. The U.S. government expects to fetch as much as $15 billion from the Jan. 24 sale.
The auction will force the winner of some of the airwaves to build an advanced network open to mobile phones from any company.
