Frontline Wireless, a company that planned to build a new high-speed wireless network for public-safety communications in the U.S. should it have been successful in the FCC’s upcoming 700MHz auction, has shut down operations. Reports suggest the company had raised the US$128 million it would need as a downpayment for the FCC auction but fell well short of the US$1.3 billion it would have needed to meet the FCC’s ‘reserve price’ for the spectrum it wanted.

With Frontline out of the mix, BusinessWeek claims it isn’t clear who will win the slice of frequencies the FCC has designated for a hybrid public-private wireless network. It also further narrows the number of new companies on the US wireless scene, with Google and Vulcan Spectrum among the few new noticeable debutants in the spectrum auction.