The FCC 600 MHz incentive auction hits 11 figures after 5 rounds, with bidders broadening their market targets
Bidding activity in the Federal Communications Commission’s 600 MHz incentive auction proceedings broadened a bit as companies looking to acquire highly sought after low-band spectrum began turning their attention to a greater number of markets.
Through five rounds of bidding in the proceeding’s forward auction process, total “winning” bids reached nearly $10.6 billion, with net proceeds surpassing the $10 billion mark. That total is still significantly short of the more than $86 billion that will be needed to meet the financial demand of television broadcasters willing to sell those spectrum assets, but is well ahead of the pace set during the record-setting AWS-3 auction, which didn’t hit the $10 billion mark until round 13.
Analysts noted the last two rounds of bidding showed participants have expanded their targets, with a larger number of markets receiving more bids than available supply. Initial bidding focused more on the auction’s largest markets.
Those large markets continue to lead the way in terms of overall valuation, with 10 licenses centered on the New York City area garnering 32 bids valued at $164.1 million per license. The five Los Angeles-centered licenses have drawn 19 bids valued at $121.5 million per license, with 10 licenses centered on Chicago having drawn 26 bids valued at $60.2 million per license at the end of round five.
The FCC is offering up various blocks of spectrum across 428 partial economic areas, with each block containing 10 megahertz of spectrum.
Similar to recent spectrum auctions, the FCC is only releasing bidding information on markets and not on which bidders have placed those bids. The current auction has 62 qualified bidders, including the likes of Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile US, U.S. Cellular and C Spire.
The auction is currently scheduled to include a pair of rounds today and a pair of rounds on Monday. The FCC has yet to post a bidding schedule beyond Aug. 22.
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