What does it say about me that I'm more interested in the results of the FCC's 700 MHz auction than I am the Super Bowl? Actually, don't answer that. Instead, revel in the glory of tech companies throwing billions of dollars at this nebulous thing we call spectrum.

The FCC kicked off its highly anticipated spectrum auction Thursday with two rounds that brought in $2.8 billion worth of bids by day's end. Stakeholders are bidding on a valuable swath of spectrum that will become available once television broadcasters shift from analog to digital signals in early 2009.

In order to avoid anti-competitive bidding behavior, the FCC did not reveal exactly who was placing bids on Thursday, but major players like Google, Alltel, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Cox Wireless, Cablevision, Echostar, and Qualcomm were all approved to participate in the auction.

One of the largest bids was close to $1 billion, and that came from a set of eight bidders who wanted a group of licenses in all 50 states. Anyone looking to trump that bid during the remaining three bidding rounds on Friday must put down at least $1.4 billion.

The first round also solicited a bid of $472 million for the D-block, which will be set aside for public safety officials. After D-Block frontrunners Frontline Wireless shut its doors earlier this month, the future of 700 MHz public safety spectrum was in doubt, but someone is apparently willing to foot the bill for emergency responder access. Anyone looking to override the current bid must wager at least $531 million.

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