FCC spectrum auction bidding slows as agency plans to increase pace
The Federal Communications Commission’s Auction 97 proceedings crawled over the $40 billion mark this morning, as overall activity slowed dramatically. New bids over the past four rounds added just $600 million to the auction’s total haul, though while still substantial, that was about half of what it added in the previous four rounds.
Following this morning’s round 46, total bids stood at more than $40.1 million. Round 46 witnessed 160 new bids that added nearly $151 million to the total pot. The auction’s total haul is more than double even the highest estimates put forth prior to its kick-off on Nov. 13.
Bidding in the latest round did not include any of the 20 most expensive licenses, with the J-Block license, centered on Atlanta, the priciest license receiving a new bid. G-Block licenses centered on Sacramento, Calif., and Emmet, Mich., each received three new bids during the latest round, pushing their respective total prices to $66 million and $118,000.
Round 45 saw two new bids placed on the J-Block license centered on New York City, which pushed that license’s auction-leading price to nearly $2.7 billion. The J-Block license centered on Los Angeles has not received a new bid in several rounds, but remained second on the price list at nearly $2.1 billion.
Outside of those two licenses attracting more than $2 billion in bids, a trio of licenses have garnered more than $1 billion in bids each: the I-Block centered on New York City ($1.3 billion), the H-Block centered on New York City ($1.3 billion) and the J-Block centered on Chicago ($1.2 billion). By comparison, the most expensive license in Auction 66, which included similar spectrum in the 1.7/2.1 GHz band, drew less than $500 million in winning bids.
The paired licenses up for bid in Auction 97 include three 5×5 megahertz licenses (G-, H- and I-Blocks) and a single 10×10 megahertz license (J-Block). The G-Block licenses are carved into commercial market area-sized licenses, which total 734 licenses covering the country. The remaining blocks are economic area-sized that will total 176 licenses covering the country. The 15 megahertz of unpaired spectrum is split into two licenses, one with 5 megahertz of total spectrum parsed out on an EA basis, and the other with 10 megahertz of spectrum also in an EA configuration.
In a move to speed up proceedings, the FCC also announced that beginning Thursday it would increase the number of bidding rounds from four to six per day, with each round cut in half from one hour to just 30 minutes.
Winning bidders will not be announced until the auction ends, with the auction set to continue until there are no new bids placed in a round.
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