WASHINGTON-Despite it being the Number One wish on bidders’ holiday lists, there probably is little chance that the D-, E- and F-block personal communications services auction will conclude before the end of the year, unless the Federal Communications Commission kicks the pace up to six or eight rounds per day. As of today, five rounds of bidding will be the norm.
“With 40-plus bids per round, that pace would be too hectic for some bidders,” commented analyst Taylor Simmons of Simmons Associates. The auction could wind up, however, during the first few days of 1997, he added. The commission currently is considering how it will handle downtime during the holiday period, with options ranging from “short mini-recesses” on Dec. 24, 25 and 31 plus Jan. 1, (with some bidding on weekends) to a full-blown two-week hiatus from Dec. 21 to Jan. 5.
As of Round 161, net revenues reached $2.39 billion, with bidding slowing to 34 new bids per round and 32 new high bids. Most of the top 20 basic trading areas have been locked in for some time, but there has been a little horse-trading still going on within the top 50 markets. Detroit, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Buffalo-Niagara Falls, Dayton-Springfield and Albany-Schenectady are available at rock-bottom rates.
NextWave Power Partners Inc. has continued to play it smarter this time around, making sure it does not overpay for markets as it did, in many cases, during the C-block auction; it did go overboard, however, to ensure the Philadelphia and St. Louis F blocks. So far, NextWave holds the high bid on 26 markets, including bargains in Chicago (F block), Detroit (D block), Dallas-Fort Worth (F), Atlanta (F), Milwaukee (F) and Salt Lake City (F).
OPCSE-Galloway Consortium, which includes Omnipoint Communications Inc., also has bid a little too much on Detroit (F) and Miami-Fort Lauderdale (F). On the other hand, the group so far has picked up San Juan (F), Baltimore (F), Norfolk-Virginia Beach (F), Providence (F), Nashville (F), Birmingham (F) and Rochester (D) inexpensively.
Northcoast Operating Co. Inc., while snatching up some choice markets on the cheap-Minneapolis-St. Paul (F) and Louisville (F)-made up for it by overbidding on New York City (F) and Hartford (F).
Other players with economy bids on tasty markets include Aer Force Communications L.P. (Los Angeles, F block), Devon Mobile Communications L.P. (Pittsburgh, F block), Telecorp Holding Corp. Inc. (Tampa-St. Petersburg, F block), Radiofone PCS L.L.C. (Denver, F block) and Magnacom Wireless L.L.C. (Portland, F block).
On a related PCS note, NextWave continues to wait for a final decision on whether it will be the PCS “carriers’ carrier” or not, following submission of its answers to FCC questions regarding foreign ownership and day-to-day management along with rebuttals by those who filed petitions to deny against its C-block licenses.
The commission released a second potentially damaging ex parte letter outlining a prohibited conversation between FCC general counsel Bill Kennard and callers Michael Regan of NextWave and attorney Riley Temple, regarding how NextWave’s applications were being treated by the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.
