Auction Outcome |
FCC Release of Winning Bids and Names of Bidders
The FCC announced details of the winners of the various auction rounds, here:
Auction 73 concluded with 1090 provisionally winning bids covering 1091 licenses and totaling $19,592,420,000, as shown in the Integrated Spectrum Auction System. The provisionally winning bids for the A, B, C, and E Block licenses exceeded the aggregate reserve prices for those blocks. The provisionally winning bid for the D Block license, however, did not meet the applicable reserve price and thus did not become a winning bid. Accordingly, Auction 73 raised a total of $19,120,378,000 in winning bids and $18,957,582,150 in net winning bids (reflecting bidders' claimed bidding credit eligibility), as shown above.
Articles on the Results
January 9, 2008, Erick Schonfeld, "Billionaires Can’t Keep Frontline Wireless From The Deadpool," TechCrunch, archived here.
Despite the backing of billionaires John Doerr and Ram Shriram, as well as former Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale and former FCC commissioner Reed Hundt, ambitious startup Frontline Wireless is closing up shop. According to the New York Times, the startup was unable to come up with the $128 million deposit needed to participate in the upcoming wireless spectrum auctions that it did so much to help shape (along with Google). With a tear in our eye, we are putting Frontline into the deadpool.
Mar 20, 2008, Peter Kaplan, “Verizon and AT&T dominate airwaves auction,” Reuters, here.
Verizon and AT&T won more than $16 billion of licenses, according to auction results released on Thursday, airwaves they plan to use to enhance existing voice and data services, as well as underpin a new wave of wireless technologies.
The possibility of a nationwide video network was raised by a $711 million slice of the 700 megahertz airwaves won by Frontier Wireless, a partner of satellite television operation DISH Network Corp. DISH declined to comment….
Nevertheless, the auction was seen as a victory for Google, since the bidding was high enough to trigger the "open-platform" rules it requested for the nationwide airwaves eventually won by Verizon. Google called it a victory for American consumers. "Consumers soon should begin enjoying new, Internet-like freedom to get the most out of their mobile phones and other wireless devices," said a statement from Google lawyers Richard Whitt and Joseph Faber.
Mar 20, 2008, “FACTBOX: Wireless auction winners,” Reuters, here, summarized major winners and their estimated spending.
April 04, 2008, Mike Robuck, “Verizon to launch new wireless broadband service with newly-won spectrum,” CED Magazine, here.
April 07, 2008, Mike Robuck, “Qualcomm beefs up wireless spectrum through FCC auction,” CED Magazine, here.
April 25, 2008, Office of FCC Inspector General, “Report on D Block Investigation,” here.
July 22, 2008, “The Spectrum Marketplace; Where Spectrum Deals Are Done,” here, describes an attempt to create a secondary market in spectrum:
“With the lucrative 700 MHz auction now behind us and most of the licenses held by large national carriers there is a huge need to create opportunities for the purchase and sale of spectrum in the secondary marketplace. The Spectrum Marketplace offers the forum for license holders to gather and get deals done efficiently and in one place,” said Monica Peterson, president of Media206.