A venture led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has applied to bid in an upcoming U.S. auction of coveted wireless airwaves, according to auction documents released late on Tuesday.

Vulcan Spectrum LLC is among the applicants who filed to bid in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) auction of 700MHz spectrum, which is scheduled to begin on 24 January.

Allen heads an investment company called Vulcan Capital and is also a majority shareholder in U.S. cable operator Charter Communications.

Allen and Vulcan Spectrum were on a list of scores of potential bidders who filed applications ahead of a December 3 FCC deadline. The list was made available on the FCC’s Web site late on Tuesday.

The auction applicants also included, as expected, Internet leader Google and U.S. wireless providers AT&T and Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone. Also listed was Qualcomm.

Posted: 12|19|07 at 10:33 am. Filed under: US News.