India, Jan. 15 -- The clock phase of the FCC's C-band auction for coveted mid-band spectrum for 5G wrapped up Friday with gross proceeds of $80.91 billion, handily beating the $44.89 billion driven by the 2004 auction for AWS-3 spectrum.

The C-band auction, known as Auction 107, centers on licenses for 280MHz of spectrum in the 3.7GHz-3.98GHz band. The FCC billed it as the highest-grossing spectrum auction ever held in the US.

"Bidders have won all of the 5,684 spectrum blocks that were up for bid. And gross proceeds have exceeded $80.9 billion, shattering the prior FCC auction record of $44.9 billion," FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement.

Fifty-seven bidders pursued the licenses in the C-band auction, but the identities of the w...