The recently completed FCC auction for 700 MHz spectrum licenses is the subject of a congressional hearing today for the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.

Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), chairman, evoked Charles Dickens in his opening comments: “It was the best of auctions and the worst of auctions,” he joked.

The auction raised more than $19 billion. “This is no small feat in current economic conditions. Second, I am pleased that the C Block license did sell successfully. This license… will unleash hundreds of millions of dollars in investment in wireless devices and applications and create new jobs in an economy that sorely needs them,” Markey said.

Although the related D Block did not sell, after being set aside for a federal emergency communications network, “I believe that pursuing ways for public safety entities and the private sector to partner toward achieving a network that possesses nationwide interoperability and broadband capability remains our best option going forward on the D Block,” he added.  The FCC should “re-calibrate” the D Block license conditions, he said.

In a harsher critique, Markey noted that telecom giants, not new players, still dominated the auction.  “As a result, the wireless ‘third pipe’ to compete with the telephone and cable industry is proving either elusive – or simply allied with one of the two existing providers in much of the country.  This is too cozy and not nearly competitive enough.  The decision to eliminate spectrum caps by the FCC under Chairman Powell is proving highly ill-considered.  Spectrum caps had ensured that incumbents couldn’t gobble up all of the available spectrum and effectively box out would-be competitors from reaching the market.”

Counterpoints from carriers and public-interest groups are expected in two panel sessions later today.