The biggest unanswered question ensuing from the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) auction of 700 MHz spectrum is what EchoStar is going to do with the airwaves it has licensed.

Unlike AT&T and Verizon, whose intentions in the auction were clear, EchoStar never telegraphed what it might want with the spectrum. So it was somewhat unexpected when EchoStar emerged with the majority of the licenses to spectrum in what the government had designated the E Block.

The spectrum in the E block is considered to be most conducive to broadcast services, as opposed to two-way services.

Absent any comment from the company, the most common guess is that EchoStar might establish a mobile TV service.

Qualcomm also won a number of licenses in the E Block. That notwithstanding, the licenses that EchoStar won – bidding through a holding company called Frontier Wireless – will give the company pretty close to national coverage.

Last week, the winners of the FCC’s 700 MHz spectrum auction – which raked in $19.5 billion – were announced (story here).

More Broadband Direct:

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• Three ops accusing Verizon of illegally using proprietary info 

• Best guess for EchoStar: A mobile TV network 

• Ipitek adds monitoring tools to 10GE Ethernet platform 

• Icahn sues Motorola for company documents 

• CTHRA looking for survey participants 

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