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WASHINGTON—Dobson Communications Corp. dominated round 85 of the advanced wireless services spectrum auction, placing nearly half of the new bids in the round. Verizon Wireless also re-entered the fray after watching from the sidelines for much of the bidding. The carrier placed a $4.1 million high bid on a 20-megahertz F-block license covering Hawaii; T-Mobile USA Inc. had previously held the license.
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Dobson had 21 new high bids on spectrum in Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia. Dobson ended the round having bid a total of $63 million for 86 spectrum licenses. Round 85 had a total of 44 new bids, including:
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Auction Summary at the end of Round 86
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| Net Bids: |
$13,639,712,550
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| New Bids in round: |
25
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| Withdrawn Bids: | 0 |
| Proactive Waivers: | 1 |
| Bidders that Reduced Eligibility: | 3 |
| Licenses with Provisionally Winning Bids: | 1069 |
| FCC Held Licenses: |
53
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| Eligible Bidders: | 106 (of 168) |
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NextWave Telecom Inc. placed three high bids totaling $4.2 million for spectrum in Louisiana and Albany, N.Y.
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T-Mobile USA came away with another three high bids for spectrum in Portland, Maine, at a price of $2.2 million; Des Moines, Iowa, for about $5.8 million; and Springfield, Ill., for $227,000.
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The Sprint Nextel joint venture with several cable companies outbid T-Mobile USA on spectrum in Birmingham, Ala., for $10.7 million, and bumped Cingular Wireless L.L.C. out of a license in the Tampa-St.Petersburg, Fla.,-area with a bid of nearly $24 million.
The auction has now raised a total of about $13.8 billion and 106 bidders remain eligible.
