700 MHz auction ends first week of bidding at $3.7B: Los Angeles generates interest in the fourth round

The Federal Communication Commission’s auction of 1,099 wireless licenses in the 700 MHz band headed into an early weekend break having garnered more than $3.7 billion in potential winning bids. The auction, which had a fifth round of bidding postponed until Monday, has drawn bids on 921 licenses at the end of four rounds with 178 licenses having yet to receive a qualified bid.

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As has been the case since the auction started, the package of eight C-Block licenses covering the 50 states continued to attract the highest bidding with one new bid during round four pushing the potential winning price of the license to nearly $1.8 billion. While the identity of interested parties in that license will not be known until the auction closes, Google Inc. said before the auction began that it would bid at least the minimum $4.6 billion necessary to trigger the open-access provision for the C Block.

For action in the third round, click here.

For a third straight round the controversial national commercial-public safety D-Block license did not receive any interest and continues to have a potential winning bid of $472 million posted during the opening round of bidding. The FCC has set a $1.3 billion reserve price on the license.

Analysts did not seemed concerned about the lack of bidding on the D Block, but cautioned the reserve price might not be reached.

“We caution against reading too much into this, as a bidder with sufficient remaining eligibility could still move in, but we see the prospects of the D Block meeting its reserve as declining,” noted firm Stifel Nicolaus.

Beyond the pair of nationwide licenses, which have garnered the highest financial interest, the regional licenses covering the Big Apple have also attracted high bids. The A Block economic area license covering the New York City area received a pair of new bids during round four, pushing its potential winning price to $143.8 million. The B Block cellular market area license covering a smaller portion of the New York City area attracted six new bids during the round, which pushed its potential winning price to $102.7 million; while the unpaired, E Block EA license covering NYC picked up two new bids and ended the round with a potential winning price of $71.9 million.

The B-Block license covering the Los Angeles area picked up the most action during the round with nine new bids pushing its potential winning price to $46.4 million.

Auction action will break for the weekend, and is set to resume with round five on Monday at 10 am EST.