Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. lawmakers will scrutinize the Federal Communications Commission's handling of a wireless airwaves auction if no one buys spectrum set aside for a public- safety network, Representative Edward Markey said.

The House Telecommunications subcommittee will work closely with the FCC to re-auction those airwaves if they fail to draw the $1.3 billion minimum price, Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat who heads the panel, said today at a hearing.

No companies have topped the $472 million that one bidder offered for the public-safety spectrum on Jan. 24, according to the FCC's Web site. Bids for other airwaves pushed total auction revenue to $8.66 billion in today's latest round. The government expects the sale to raise between $10 billion and $15 billion.

Auction rules require the winner of the public-safety airwaves, known as the D-block, to build a network that emergency responders will share with commercial carriers. If bids don't reach at least $1.3 billion, the FCC may modify the rules before putting the D-block up for sale in a new auction.

Frontline Wireless LLC, a Silicon Valley-backed company that wanted to buy the D-block airwaves and build the network, closed down this month.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said at a Jan. 15 briefing with reporters that he is still optimistic the auction will create a national wireless network to improve emergency communications during disasters such as terrorist attacks and hurricanes.

`Discouraging'

The lack of new bids on the public-safety airwaves is ``discouraging,'' Markey said at the hearing. The subcommittee will ``actively review'' the FCC's rules for the D-block, including the minimum price, if it fails to sell, he said.

Commissioner Michael Copps, one of two Democrats on the five member FCC, declined to comment today on the whether the price for the D-block is too high. The agency hasn't decided how to structure a new sale if no one offers the minimum, he said today during a news conference.

``If it doesn't elicit the kind of bids that were provided for, then we have to jump right back into this issue, go back to square one,'' Copps said.

Congress shouldn't let the FCC change any public-safety requirements ``mid-course'' if the D-block doesn't sell, said Representative Jane Harman of California, a Democrat who serves on the Homeland Security Committee.

`Last Chance'

The auction ``may be the last chance for decades'' to spur a public-private partnership to create an emergency high-speed wireless network, Harman said at the hearing.

The D-block is among 1,099 spectrum slices that will become available when television broadcasters move to digital signals in 2009. AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless and Google Inc. are among 214 companies vying for the airwaves, which are ideal for mobile Web access because they can travel long distances and easily pass through walls.

Bidders offered enough today to reach the auction's $1.37 billion total aggregate price on a group of 734 spectrum licenses known as the B-block, the FCC said. Bids on the B-block include a $368 million offer on airwaves covering New York and $200 million for spectrum in Los Angeles.

Bids for the auction's largest chunk of spectrum, known as the C-block, rose to $3.78 billion today, up 12 percent from a previous offer. If bids for the C-block reach $4.6 billion, the buyer must allow any legal device or program to use its network.

The FCC will hold four more bidding rounds tomorrow. The highest offers are announced after each round, though not the names of the bidders. The final winning bids will be revealed after the auction ends.

To contact the reporter on this story: Molly Peterson in Washington at mpeterson9@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 29, 2008 18:05 EST