Airwaves Bidding Outstrips Previous FCC License Auction

WASHINGTON - Wireless communications companies and entrepreneurs bid aggressively in the government's latest auction of the nation's much sought-after airwaves.

The licenses will allow winning bidders to deliver such futuristic "personal communications services" as high-tech voice paging and data transmission services in five regions across the country.

At the end of the auctions's first day, bids for the 30 regional licenses available stood at $297.2 million, far outstripping the $196.8 million offered by the end of the first day of July's sale of nationwide licenses for even bigger pieces of the nation's airwaves, said the Federal Communications Commission.