WASHINGTON—Bidding is picking up speed in the FCC’s advanced wireless services spectrum auction, with the total value of provisionally winning bids jumping from more than $2.4 billion late Friday to more than $4.1 billion in the two rounds held so far today.
| Click here for the latest headlines from the AWS auction. Click here for full AWS auction coverage. |
Dolan Family Holdings L.L.C., backed by Charles Dolan, chairman of CableVision Systems Corp., made the highest bid yet: $537 million for the 20-megahertz F-block license covering the Northeastern United States. The entity also was the high bidder on eight other licenses, all of which covered cities in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.
|
Top 10 Highest Bids in Round 10
|
||
| AW-REA001-F
Northeast |
Dolan Family Holdings, LLC | $536,657,000 |
| AW-REA006-F
West |
SpectrumCo LLC | $442,415,000 |
| AW-REA003-F
Great Lakes |
T-Mobile License LLC | $297,031,000 |
| AW-REA002-F
Southeast |
Wireless DBS LLC | $276,064,000 |
| AW-REA005-F
Central |
Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless | $226,798,000 |
| AW-REA001-E
Northeast |
Cingular AWS, LLC | $221,754,000 |
| AW-REA001-D
Northeast |
Denali Spectrum License, LLC | $221,754,000 |
| AW-REA006-E
West |
Cingular AWS, LLC | $219,378,000 |
| AW-REA006-D
West |
MetroPCS AWS, LLC | $171,550,000 |
| AW-REA004-F
Mississippi Valley |
Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless | $163,133,000 |
| Click here to find out who is backing these bidders. | ||
T-Mobile USA Inc. was the top bidder for30 licenses in the most recent round of bidding, including an F-block license covering the Great Lakes region and two licenses in Hawaii; most of its other licenses covered metropolitan areas around the country, such as Boston, Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, satellite providers EchoStar Communications Corp. and DirecTV Group Inc. placed high bids on licenses covering the coastal Southeastern United States, the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley regions, as well as spectrum in San Francisco, the New York City metro area and two licenses in Alaska.
Sprint Nextel Corp.’s joint venture with four cable companies was the top bidder for three licenses at the end of the 10th round: two licenses that would give the JV 30 MHz of spectrum in Hawaii and an F-block license covering the Western region of the continental United States.
The FCC is currently holding four AWS auction rounds per day
