The Federal Communications Commission’s H-Block spectrum auction has slowed to a painful crawl as the number of new bids Monday hit an all-time low.
A total of 22 new bids were placed across 12 rounds of action totaling under $4 million in new funds, which pushed the auction’s total to nearly $1.539 billion. The auction is still short of the $1.565 billion Dish Network pledged for all 176 spectrum licenses up for bid, with the auction scheduled to continue until a round does not receive any new bids.
Bidding Monday centered on just a handful of markets, with Abilene, San Angelo and Odessa-Midland, Texas; Fargo and Minot, N.D.; North Platte, Colo./Neb.; Eugene, Ore.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Scottsbluff, Neb.; and Aberdeen, S.D., the only markets to receive new bids.
According to Stephen Wilkus, CTO of Spectrum Financial Partners, 26 of the 10-megahertz licenses had surpassed the 50 cents per-megahertz/per-potential customer offer Dish Network had offered. It’s assumed that if the auction’s total purse does not reach the $1.565 billion offered by Dish Network, the company will pick up all of the licenses for that total price.
There was no word from the FCC late Monday as to whether it would further alter the bidding structure of the auction. There are currently 12 rounds scheduled per day, with each round lasting 10 minutes.
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