The long-awaited (and once delayed) FCC auction for the so-called “beach-front” 700MHz wireless band begins today, with the shortlist (that, at 214 members, isn’t all that short) of potential bidders each hoping to take away one of the five blocks of prime spectrum.  Block C is the most hotly contested, due to its breadth (22MHz) and clustered regions, with big-name players including Google, Verizon Wireless and AT&T all tipped to be interested.

Three rounds of bidding will take place each business day, with information about the highest bid - though not the bidder who has placed it - distributed among participants; there is no set end-date, and the auction ends when no further bids are placed.  Each block has a reserve price: block A at $1.81bn; block B at $1.37bn; block C at $4.64bn; block D at $1.33bn; and block E at $904m, and if those figures fail to be met then a second auction will be scheduled with new reserve prices.

In an attempt to prevent deal-making and collusion, those taking part are not permitted to publicly comment on their bidding status under penalty of expulsion from the whole auction.  Still, analysts have expended much energy arguing whether key players will choose to bid or not, and what could be their motivations for doing so.  Google’s participation is particularly uncertain; having persuaded the FCC to add open-access clauses into the block C contract, many have suggested that it would be in the search giant’s best interest (particularly with the bevy of Android-powered handsets reaching the market this year) to let another company win the auction (and build the network) and concentrate instead on providing advertising and software to the devices that will eventually use it.

However, if the reserve price for block C is not met, the open-access provisos will be dropped in the subsequent auction, leading many to conclude that Google will push bidding up to - but no further than - that $4.64bn minimum.