The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) received winning bids worth $21.8 billion in its latest mid-band spectrum sale, a total the authority lauded as making the auction among the highest grossing in its history.

During the so-called clock phase, where companies competed for generic blocks of spectrum in the 3.45GHz to 3.5GHz range, all but 19 of the 4,060 lots offered were won.

In the next part of the process operators and other winning parties will vie for licences for specific blocks.

The auction started in early October with 33 companies qualifying to place bids, including the three major operators and newcomer Dish Network. Up for sale was 100MHz of spectrum split into 10MHz blocks with licences set to cover specific geographic areas.

In its statement, the FCC noted licence winners “will operate within a cooperative sharing framework that will enable commercial use by an array of service providers, while also ensuring coexistence with federal incumbents where and when they require continued access to the band”.