The Federal Communication Commission’s 700 MHz auction slowly crawled past the $19 billion mark this afternoon. Bidders laid down 203 bids during round 40, the last round of the day, adding $19.7 million to a total auction pot of $19.02 billion.
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The FCC’s decision to spur bidders by implementing its “Stage Two Transition,” beginning with today’s bidding, continued to pay off as the auction drew an average of 200 new bids through the day’s final two rounds. The most activity surrounded the B- and E-Bock licenses, which drew 165 bids during round 40 and 161 bids in round 39. The E-Block license covering Traverse City, Mich., received the most attention during rounds 39 and 40, picking up three new bids during each round.
The new bidding helped push total potential winning bids on the E Block to just over $868 million, or 96% of the reserve price needed to finalize bids. The A-, B- and C-Block licenses have already exceeded their reserve price.
The D Block however continues to languish.
Perhaps the most interesting activity was a pair of new bids placed on the C-Block license covering Alaska during round 39, which was followed by an additional bid in round 40. C-Block licenses covering the 50 states have not received a new bid since round 30, and most analysts thought bidding for those licenses was done. But, with a relatively low price of $1.7 million, plenty of bidders have retained enough eligibility to continue bidding on the Alaska license. The Alaska C-Block license was at 13 cents per megahertz/potential customer covered at the end of round 40, according to Optimal Markets Inc., ahead of the 9 cents per MHz/pop the market received during last year’s advanced wireless services auction.
At the end of round 40, only 10 licenses had yet to receive a single bid during the auction, including B-Block licenses covering Bismarck, Grand Forks and Fargo, N.D.; rural B Blocks covering portions of Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Louisiana; and an E-Block license covering Western Oklahoma.
