Skip to Content

The dish on parenting ... check out the new ParentDish!
AOL Tech

FCC releases 700MHz auction details, Verizon, AT&T big winners


After yesterday's wrap-up of the gargantuan Auction 73 to offload the newly-freed 700MHz spectrum, it looks like the two champions to emerge are Verizon and AT&T. Big Red has emerged with virtually all of the highly coveted C Block save for Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the Gulf of Mexico, a logical move considering its recent foray into the wide world of open access. AT&T, meanwhile, has scored much of the B Block, giving it 12MHz of spectrum in many of over 700 "cellular market areas" nationwide. In total, Verizon laid out a whopping $4,741,807,000 to pick up the Block C airwaves, leaving early competitor Google in the dust -- and affirming rumors that Mountain View wasn't in it to win it, it just wanted to make sure the reserve price was met and open access rules were assured.

Other winners include Qualcomm, which won bits and pieces of the B and E Blocks -- more MediaFLO spectrum, perhaps? -- and Frontier Wireless, scoring the overwhelming majority of the low-bandwidth E Block. Frontier is in cahoots with Echostar, though it's not clear how (or if) the new spectrum would augment its satellite TV service.

Left out in the cold was the D Block, a wireless range which the FCC had required to be used in partnership with public safety groups; it failed to meet its minimum reserve price of $1.33 billion, which means that a new Auction 76 will be automatically spawned for bidders to have another go at it. Follow the break for the big winners, broken down by block.



BlockBig winnerTotal spent (approximate, across all blocks)
A
No clear winner
B
AT&T $6,636,658,000
C
Verizon Wireless $9,363,160,000
D
Qualcomm $472,042,000 (did not meet reserve)
E
Frontier Wireless $711,871,000

Relevant Posts

Subscribe to these comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Add your comments

New Users

Current Users

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

Please note that gratuitous links to your site are viewed as spam and may result in removed comments. And yes, comments are moderated.





Weblogs, Inc. Network

AOL News

Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in: