The Federal Communications Commission’s Auction 97 is already more than halfway to the agency’s minimum goal of $10.5 billion in total auction proceeds. At the end of today’s first round, the total bid stood at $5.5 billion.
Bidding was heated on Friday with total potential winning bids boiling from just over $2.8 billion after the first round of bidding to the $4.7 billion mark three rounds later. The last round on Friday, which was officially round seven, generated 1,489 new bids totaling more than $784 million. At the end of the week 1,209 of the 1,614 spectrum licenses up for grabs had garnered a bid.
The 20-megahertz J-Block license covering the New York City area continued to attract the highest bids, with its potential winning bid sitting at $263.5 million after garnering five new bids in round seven. A similar-sized license covering Los Angeles was a distant No. 2 at $195.7 million and had also attracted five new bids in the latest round.
Among the smaller license sizes, New York City continued to attract the most interest, with the 10-megahertz H-Block and I-Block licenses sitting with potential winning bids of $159.4 million and $131.7 million respectively at the end of round seven. The 10-megahertz G-Block license covering a smaller portion of the Los Angeles area led that band with a potential winning bid of $87.3 million at the end of round seven. The H-, I- and J-Block licenses are all split in the 176 economic areas, while the G-Block licenses are split in 734 commercial market areas.
With only a single, 20-megahertz spectrum block covering each EA, the J-Block is expected to lead the auction in at least the total amount of money involved as analysts expect heated bidding from the three largest operators in the auction: Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile US. The smaller license sizes – both geographically and in the amount of spectrum – are expected to produce valuations in terms of megahertz per potential customer covered similar to the J-Block.
As for the unpaired spectrum up for bid, the 10-megahertz, EA-sized B1 license covering New York City was at $18.8 million after round seven having received only four bids so far in the proceedings, while the five-megahertz, EA-sized A1 license covering Peoria, Ill., leads that band with a high bid of $44,000 at the end of round seven.
The new week is expected to begin with the same bidding format as Friday, with four, one-hour rounds of bidding scheduled. All 70 participants that started the auction remained eligible at the end of round seven. Past history has shown that the auction could go on for at least one month.
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