The second round of the Federal Communication Commission’s 700 MHz auction brought 1,122 new bids with total potential winning bids jumping nearly 15% to nearly $2.8 billion.
Click here for complete 700 MHz auction coverage.
The heaviest investment continues on the package of regional C-Block licenses covering the 50 states. The 22 megahertz license, which includes the FCC’s controversial open-access provision, saw a new bid push its price tag to more than $1.2 billion. However, the bid is still well short of the $4.6 billion minimum needed to keep the open-access provision on the license intact.
The national commercial-public safety D-Block license, which received a $472 million bid during the opening round, failed to receive a new bid during the second round. The license has a $1.3 billion reserve price that could be difficult to reach following the demise of startup Frontline Wireless L.L.C.
The New York City area continued to draw top bidding from those interested in regional markets. There was a $99.8 million bid for the A Block economic area license covering the New York City area; a $71.3 million bid for the B Block cellular marker area license covering the New York City market; and a $49.9 million bid for the E Block EA license.
Auction bidding is set to start back up Friday morning at 10 a.m. Eastern Time and include three rounds of bidding before taking a break for the weekend.
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Second round results |
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| Top 5 provisional winning bids | Package/License |
Amount |
Minimum bid for round 3 |
| 1 |
Package 50 States |
$1,244,993,000 |
$1,244,993,000 |
| 2 |
WP-NWA511-D |
$472,042,000 |
$531,047,000 |
| 3 |
WY-BEA010-A |
$99,854,000 |
$119,825,000 |
| 4 |
WY-CMA001-B |
$71,322,000 |
$85,586,000 |
| 5 |
WY-BEA010-E |
$49,927,000 |
$59,912,000 |
