AWS-3 spectrum auction continues, bidding nearly $44 billion

With the accelerated bidding schedule, and the fact that provisional bids have reached $43.7 billion, it looks like the current FCC auction of AWS-3 spectrum (1695-1710MHz, 1755-1780MHz, and 2155-2180MHz) will be ending soon.

After 92 rounds of bidding, the last series brought in a bit over $20 million from 49 bids overall. Busier series of bids had better than double the activity.

The bidding has not been even across board either. The 1755-1780MHz and 2155-2180MHz blocks of spectrum are paired (the former for the uplink, and the latter for the downlink), and so the majority of attention and bidding has been on those tiers.

The unpaired 1695-1710MHz block of uplink spectrum has not had as much bidding activity, and will account for about one-fifth, or less, of the money bid on the auction so far. The market to attract the most money so far is New York City and Long Island, where bidding for 10x10MHz paired block has reached $2.76 billion. San Antonio, Texas was in the spotlight during the last round of bidding, with a 5x5MHz paired block saw offers reach $73.6 million.

This interest in spectrum should prove to be a source of relief for the FCC while it organizes the 600MHz auction set to take place in 2016. However, the rules for that auction are quite a bit more complex, and it also depends on existing license holders, mainly TV broadcasters, giving up their spectrum for the auction.

via: FierceWireless