Vodafone shareholders may pay a high price for Verizon Wireless's successful bid for mobile spectrum in the United States.

Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Vodafone and Verizon Communications, is thought to have paid about $5 billion (£2.5 billion) for new mobile phone networks.

The auctions, which raised $19.2 billion for the US Government, sold licences for wireless spectrum being vacated by television broadcasters as they move to digital signals next year.

In a note to clients, Investec, the South African bank, recommended selling shares in Vodafone on the grounds that “likely dividend payments to Vodafone [will be] delayed and associate earnings dampened”.

Verizon Wireless won enough licences in the C-block to cover every state but Alaska. The company said it was pleased with the results, which would allow it to continue to expand its business and data revenues.

While Verizon, AT&T and Frontier Wireless won the auctions on Thursday night, notably absent was Google, the world's biggest internet company.

Experts said Google's failure to secure any of the coveted licences might prove a victory for the group because it would still get access to mobile networks without spending tens of billions of dollars to build a mobile network.

Wall Street analysts said Google appeared to have followed a strategy of “bidding to lose”. Once Verizon takes control of the network, it will be required to allow devices and applications from other companies to use it.

Jim Friedland, an analyst at Cowen & Co, said: “Google was never in this game to actually build out a telecom network. Their key goal was to open up closed networks.” He added: “By creating a system that is completely open, Google may prevent carriers from using their monopoly position to drive users in a particular way to their services.”

Google, which has the largest share of the online advertising market worth an estimated $40 billion a year, wants to make the internet easier to use for mobile phone users and hopes that would translate into increased demand for its web search and advertising services.

Richard Whitt and Joseph Faber, lawyers for Google, said on Thursday: “Consumers soon should begin enjoying new, internet-like freedom to get the most out of their mobile phones and other wireless devices.”

Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein, the US investment house, said: “Whether or not Google can be charged for access to the devices, or if customers can be surcharged for using Google applications, remains unclear for now.”

Broadband access in the US is dominated by the major telecommunications and cable companies. The Federal Communications Commission wants wireless to emerge as a third platform, creating competition.

However, Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, an advocacy group that supports greater access to communications services, said the auction failed in that regard because Verizon was a dominant provider of internet access. “The prospect of a genuine third pipe competitor in the wireless world is now slim to none,” he said.

Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft have all been trying to devise ways of making the internet easier to use from a mobile phone handset. They are competing against each other for a bigger share of the internet advertising market, which is expected to double in value in the next two years.

So critical is that market, that Microsoft is prepared to pay $41 billion - in the largest hostile takeover in America - to seize control of Yahoo! its rival.

Microsoft's offer, which was made at the beginning of last month, has been rejected by Yahoo!. It is understood that only one direct meeting between the two companies has taken place.

Yahoo! has yet to announce the date of its annual meeting, where it is expected that Microsoft will nominate its own directors in an attempt to oust the Yahoo! board.

Yahoo! has been trying to secure a joint venture or other deal with media and technology companies to prevent being taken over by Microsoft.

It has been in talks with News Corporation, parent of The Times and with AOL, the internet arm of Time Warner.

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