700 MHz Auction Keeps Going, and Going, and Going . . .
March 13th, 2008
Kevin Rupy
After weeks of bidding, over 200 rounds, and more than $19.5 billion in submitted bids, the FCC’s closely watched 700 MHz auction is slowing to a crawl and is expected to end soon.
Two big questions, however, remain on the minds of people watching the auction. The first is obvious: Who are the winners? More specifically, who has won the C-block package that adds up to a nationwide license? Verizon and Google were thought to be the companies that were bidding up the package several weeks ago, but due to auction rules, the package will be split, meaning the opportunity for one company to secure a nationwide network may have been lost. Once the auction ends, it will be a few days before the FCC releases its results, but with so many interesting players-including satellite interests, Google, nationwide telecom companies, an oil company, and numerous small companies-auction speculation has been a bit of a pastime for many industry watchers.
The second question is what will become of the apparent failure of the D-block license, a nationwide license that was to be used for a public safety/private partnership? Since the auction started in late January, there has been only a single $472 million bid for the D-block, well below the agency’s $1.3 billion minimum price. In mid-February, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin conceded that he thought an additional bid on the D-block would be unlikely, saying that the Commission would have to go “back to the drawing board” to figure out what to do with the spectrum; as of yet, the Commission has kept mum about any plans or details for a subsequent D-block auction.
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