Telecommunications giants and entrepreneurs are squaring off over a valuable chunk of airwaves often touted as the last beachfront property in the wireless world.

With a slice of radio spectrum valued as high as $20 billion coming up for auction, academics, consumer advocates, and small businesses are pushing federal regulators to set rules that ensure that the space is used to foster innovation and not simply sold to the major wireless carriers...

Few people think about the electromagnetic waves that carry TV signals, radio stations, cellphone calls, and text messages, but the FCC's spectrum auctions over the past 13 years have brought in close to $28 billion and helped shape the modern telecom landscape.

Consumer advocates would like to see the FCC bar whomever wins the auction from warehousing the space. They also want the commission to require that any wireless device -- not just phones sanctioned and sold by the winning bidder -- be allowed to connect to the network, which could encourage entrepreneurs to create new devices and services...

If spectrum becomes more widely available to smaller players, one can envision a day when someone driving pings the refrigerator at home and gets a list of the contents to see what else he or she would like when shopping , adjusts a thermostat, or connects every device in the home, with content flowing from appliances to computers to mobile devices, said Michael Calabrese , director of the Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation...

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