Washington - Companies bid more than $2.4 billion in the opening round of the Federal Communications Commission's wireless spectrum auction on Thursday, which took place as scheduled despite calls by some to delay it in light of the recent credit crunch. Bidders are vying for pieces of coveted 700 megahertz spectrum in the auction, which is expected to last for several weeks.

The auction has been expected to raise about $10 billion for the government, and includes airwaves that TV stations will no longer use as they switch to digital signals.

Some of the most prominent potential bidders include AT&T (NYSE: T), Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) and Google (NASD: GOOG).

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