The FCC 700 Mhz Spectrum auction opened at the end of January. I followed it for a few days and realized that it made watching paint dry seem useful. Well, I’m starting to see sings of life in the world of the spectrum again probably because it seems as if the end is near. Apparently the bidding continues until interest wanes to point of stopping.

Many of the auctions are over and done. It looks like North and South Dakota are still in the hopper. (It sounds like gym class – where the mightiest are chosen first.)

The bidding has already raised about $20 billion. (Twice what they predicted.)

DSLReports has been keeping a good eye on the auction. They suggest that while we might not be too interested now that “interest could re-ignite when bidders are announced”.

C|net suggests that the auction may be ending soon – but we won’t see a difference for years. They follow research from 4 universities where students took on identities of four companies with a stake in the auction outcome–Google, Intel, AT&T Mobility and Vulcan Capital.

Here’s a look at some of the other predictions. The Google team, made up of students from University of Chicago, predicted that the search engine giant will partner with a leading wireless service provider, possibly AT&T. And the group believes that it will share 20 percent of its advertising revenue with whoever owns the licenses. Separate from the auction, the group also predicts that Google’s new Android handset software will run into resistance among chipmakers and handset manufacturers, who have different business interests than Google.

The Northwestern group, which took on the identity of Intel, believes the chipmaker will attack the wireless broadband market through its WiMax initiative. The company will likely work with PC makers to embed WiMax chips and help them shrink their devices to compete directly with smartphones, the students said.

The teams also said that adult content was likely to be the killer application that will drive wireless broadband adoption.

The Washington Post reports that the general auction has gone well – but the D-block, the one reserved for an interoperable public safety network likely won’t meet its minimum bid requirement. It will be interesting to see what happens there. One clause that makes the safety-net even more interesting – the FCC won’t reveal winners of any of the other blocks until it decides what it will do with the D-block.