WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission auction of airwaves for advanced wireless services was winding down on Thursday with few new bids offered and spectrum-hungry T-Mobile USA in the lead.

T-Mobile, the No. 4 U.S. wireless carrier and owned by Deutsche Telekom AG, has provisionally won 119 licenses in major markets like New York City and Chicago with offers of almost $4.2 billion after 141 rounds.

The company had been expected to be the most aggressive bidder in the FCC sale because in many key markets it has less airwaves to serve customers than larger rivals.

So far the auction has grossed almost $13.9 billion, but would net about $13.7 billion because of discounts offered to entrepreneurial bidders. Analysts had expected the sale to raise from $8 billion to $15 billion.

Existing wireless companies want more airwaves so they can improve services as well as expand to include offerings like high-speed Internet access and video.

Four bids were made in the 141st round on Thursday. The auction will resume on Friday. The sale ends when there are no more bids, withdrawals or other activity.

Verizon Wireless, the No. 2 carrier and was not expected to be a big bidder in the sale. However, so far it has been in second place in the bidding, offering $2.81 billion for 13 licenses that include the northeast and southeast United States.

A surprise player in the auction was a consortium of the top U.S. cable television providers that teamed up with Sprint Nextel Corp.. Some analysts see that as an effort to expand high-speed Internet access.

The group, dubbed SpectrumCo LLC, includes cable providers Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Inc.. It currently has the high bids for 137 licenses offering almost $2.4 billion.

"Both the cable (companies) and Sprint-Nextel have a strategic interest in helping one another, at least in these early stages of cable's foray into wireless, as each draws on the core strengths of the other to help set both apart from the Bells," said Medley Global Advisors analyst Jessica Zufolo, referring to the traditional telephone carriers.

A joint venture of rival satellite television providers, DirecTV Group Inc. and EchoStar Communications Corp., dropped out after just a few days of bidding despite making the largest deposit of all bidders ahead of the sale.

Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc..