The FCC closed the 700 MHz auction this afternoon after 261 rounds of bidding. The total raised was more than $19.5 billion - which, as Wired's Bryan Gardiner notes, was "more money than any auction in the agency's history and almost double original congressional estimates."

"The C-block, which must be open to all applications and devices after reaching its reserve price of $4.6 billion, was sold for approximately $6.5 billion," reports PC Magazine's Chloe Albanesius.

Still, it's not all good news. "While the auction will yield billions of dollars more than estimated, it fell short of hopes that it would establish new networks for public safety organizations," notes The New York Times' Stephen Labaton. "A group of licenses known as the D-block was unable to attract the minimum required bid."

In the short term, at least, there won't be much more info. "The FCC hasn't released names of the winners, and identities may not be released for several days," writes The Wall Street Journal's Amy Schatz. "Companies involved in the auction are barred from commenting on it for several weeks."

And even for the winning bids, don't hold your breath. "The spectrum itself will not become available until after analog television transmissions are ended in February 2009," explains Ars Technica's Eric Bangeman. "Once the spectrum is freed up, it may take the winners some time to build out their networks."

More here from The Industry Standard ... more here from Forbes ... more here from Reuters ... more here from the AP ... more here from CNET News ... more here from MarketWatch ... more here from Fortune ... and the press release is here.