Wireless operators may now have to take some of the blame for New York residents feeling somewhat superior to the rest of the country. Through 49 rounds of bidding in the Federal Communications Commission’s re-auction of PCS licenses, the Big Apple is the only large marker still witnessing intense competition for licenses.
Prior to the auction, Cingular Wireless, AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and Verizon Wireless were tipped as having to win at least one license in New York if they wanted to introduce any additional services on their already over-stressed networks.
Those three carriers are following that game plan by one-upping each other’s bids on a daily basis. By round 49, Verizon had the high net bid on both open 10-megahertz licenses in New York, with bids totaling more than $3.2 billion. AT&T, bidding through DE Alaska Native Wireless, had the high net bid for the 10-megahertz DE-only license, with a bid of more than $1.1 billion.
Cingular, bidding through DE Salmon PCS L.L.C., had the high bid on the DE license after round 46, and on one of the open licenses after round 43. Cingular currently controls only 10-megahertz of spectrum in New York and needs at least one additional license if it plans to compete with other carriers in that market.
Bidding for the three licenses in New York totaled more than $4.3 billion, representing almost a third of all bidding in the auction, which totaled $16 billion in gross bids and $15.5 billion in net bids. Net bids include discounts available to DE’s that have high bids for open licenses.
Verizon continues to lead all bidders with high net bids totaling $7.8 billion on 112 markets covering 150 million potential customers. Alaska Native remains a distant second with high net bids totaling $2.5 billion on 48 markets covering 64 million pops, followed by Salmon PCS with high net bids of $1.8 billion on 58 markets covering 55 million pops.
Most of the other licenses covering large markets appear to be wrapped up with Verizon leading the bids for licenses in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and two in Boston. Salmon Wireless looks to have licenses locked up in Dallas and Boston, with Alaska Native leading the bidding for a license in Los Angeles. DE DCC PCS Inc., with ties to Dobson Communications and AT&T, has the high bid for licenses in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Nine bidders dropped out of the auction last week, including AT&T Corp., DE Allegheny Communications and AirGate PCS Inc, leaving 39 bidders out of the original 82 qualified bidders.
