A recently completed Federal Communications Commission paging spectrum auction generated about $2.4 million for a total of 2,832 licenses, numbers that come nowhere near the billions spent on other wireless spectrum auctions in recent years, but results that provide further evidence of the still-active paging and messaging industry.
“It’s reasonably priced spectrum,” said Tom Cook, head of West Coast paging company Cook Telecom. The carrier purchased 40 licenses for about $18,000.
A total of 96 entities won licenses in the auction, many of which were regional paging companies. Other participants included individual bidders, fleet management companies, communications and electronics companies and a few state and local governments. Some paid out only a few hundred dollars for their handful of licenses. The only major paging and messaging carrier to participate was SkyTel Communications Inc., which bought 91 licenses for about $94,000.
The auction follows two other paging auctions held during the past few years and includes much of the spectrum that was not sold in those previous auctions. Metrocall and SBC Paging were some of the highest bidders in those auctions.
Cook explained that the latest auction, No. 48, was mainly for small businesses looking to buy spectrum for a local or regional paging service.
“There are very few auctions designed for the small business,” he said.
Cook described the auction as offering “junk spectrum,” meaning that it only covered a few small areas across the country. National companies would have little interest in such spectrum, leaving it for smaller businesses and local providers. Cook Telecom expects to use its winnings to improve and slightly expand its paging and messaging network, as well as to potentially try out new wireless technologies.
“It gives us much more freedom in the use of our network,” Cook said.
Cook said smaller businesses haven’t had much chance to acquire spectrum following the FCC’s move in the 1980s toward spectrum auctions, which have generated billions of dollars but have also led to some bankruptcies. Cook said auctions like No. 48 have been the only place for small businesses and entrepreneurs to try out their services.
Aside from the business aspects of auction No. 48, the process also served to highlight the paging and messaging industry’s smaller players-many of which continue to boast of solid businesses amid a declining industry.
“The industry is in a state of flux,” said Brian Bobeck, president of paging carrier Aquis Communications Inc. “There is an exodus of the consumer, however, the enterprise market is alive and well. The health care, public safety, emergency and industrial industries rely heavily on messaging communication. In these stressful times of national security, we are finding other markets for our service as well. It is a shift from targeting consumers to targeting primarily business users.”
Aquis, which has participated in previous paging spectrum auctions, services about 157,000 customers.
In other paging news:
c Former paging infrastructure provider Glenayre Technologies Inc. said it turned over the last of its paging business to ISC Technologies. ISC will provide paging infrastructure repair services, a move Glenayre said fulfills its contractual obligations. Glenayre said in 2001 it would exit the paging infrastructure business.
c Paging carrier Metrocall Holdings Inc. said it made a $10 million prepayment on its account of $21.5 million, a move the company said leaves it with just $11.5 million in remaining debt.
