700MHz Auction

700MHz: Ain’t Over Yet

Posted by samc on February 4th, 2008

Hold the phone! The FCC’s 700 MHz spectrum auction ain’t over yet.

RCR News reports the auction took another unexpected turn today with high bidding on individual C-Block licenses. Analysts are guessing that Verizon Wireless is behind the individual C-Block bids and has brushed past Google, which is thought to have been the high bidder for the 50-state package.

A $4.71 billion offer last Thursday for nationwide “C” block package of wireless spectrum was surpassed by a combination of eight separate bids for regional pieces of the C-block airwaves that totaled $4.74 billion, today.

It was unclear whether the piecemeal regional bids on Monday had been put together by a single bidder aiming to acquire the entire block of spectrum or were offers from several different suitors, analysts at Stifel Nicolaus said in a research note.

The action began in round 27 when the C Blocks for the Mississippi Valley and Central regional economic area grouping licenses received new high potential winning bids of $1.6 billion and $723 million, respectively. That was followed by a new bid of $502.8 million for the Northeast REAG in round 29 and new bids during round 30 on the Great Lakes ($1.1 billion), Southeast ($424.2 million), West ($319.8 million), Hawaii ($36.1 million) and Alaska ($1.7 million) REAGs.

After all was said and done, the eight individual licenses totaled $4.734 billion, just nipping the $4.713 billion potential winning bid for the licenses as a package.

Despite the C-Block action, general bidding across the rest of the FCC’s 700 MHz licenses slowed to a crawl. There were only 405 new bids placed during round 27, falling to 232 new bids in round 28, 203 new bids in round 29 and 158 new bids in round 30.

Today’s potential winning bids added a paltry $270.9 million to the auction’s total purse, which stood at $18.8 billion at the end of round 30.

The FCC was forced to cut today’s bidding action short by one round as a technical glitch foiled the scheduled start of round 31. The auction is set to resume tomorrow morning at 9:30 am EST.

Licenses Available in Auction 73
Block	Frequencies (MHz)	Bandwidth	Pairing	Geographic Area Type	No. of Licenses
A	698-704, 728-734	12 MHz	2 x 6 MHz	EA	176
B	704-710, 734-740	12 MHz	2 x 6 MHz	CMA	734
E	722-728	6 MHz	unpaired	EA	176
C	746-757, 776-787	22 MHz	2 x 11 MHz	REAG	12
D	758-763, 788-793	10 MHz	2 x 5 MHz	Nationwide	1*
*Subject to conditions respecting a public/private partnership.

There have been no new offers for the nationwide C Block license package or the D Block commercial/public safety spectrum, but as long as bidding continues for regional licenses, the auction will continue, notes Information Week.

source : dailywireless.org