The FCC's auction of new spectrum in the US has gotten off to a busy start with 168 bidders lined up for 1,122 licenses for 90 Mhz spectrum in many US markets. Lots of new players have piled in with the usual suspects, as the big 4 of Sprint Nextel, Verizon Wireless, Cingular and T-Mobile look to add to their holdings and venture further into broadband wireless. They will be fending off aspirants such as Echostar/DirecTV/ News Corp front group Wireless DBS, cable group SpectrumCo, representing Cox, Comcast and Time Warner and assorted other characters.

Katie over at GigaOm has more here.