C Block gathers dust while A and B Blocks gather coin: $4.7B may be the winning bid for open-access spectrum

After 21 rounds the Federal Communications Commission’s auction of 1,099 spectrum licenses in the 700 MHz band swept past the $15 billion mark, and it does not look like its slowing down anytime soon. The $15 billion point was at the high end of most pre-auction estimates.

Next stop, $20 billion?

And why not? Five rounds of bidding on Thursday added more than $4 billion in potential winning bids, surpassing the $3 billion posted during four rounds on Wednesday and $2.5 billion thrown down on Tuesday.

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One aspect of the auction that did slow down was bidding on the C Block. After a single bid in round 17 on the C-Block package pushed it over the $4.6 billion reserve price — thereby triggering an open-access provision for all C-Block licenses — the spectrum has failed to garner an additional bid. The potential winning bid for the C-Block package covering the 50 states stood at $4.7 billion following round 21, with the next minimum bid set at $5.16 billion.

If the C Block doesn’t see any additional bids in the coming rounds, it could indicate bidders have run out of bidding credits and are not be able to up the price of the license, according to analysts. Thus, the unnamed bidder that placed the $4.7 billion bid could be holding the winning ticket.

A and B action

Activity on the A- and B-Block licenses made up for the dust settling on the C Block. A pair of new bids were placed in round 21 for the B-Block license covering Chicago that pushed the potential winning bid to $701.3 million, or an auction high $7.22 per megahertz/potential customer covered, according to Optimal Markets Inc. No. 2 on the list? The B Block covering Oklahoma City, which is going for $5.42 per MHz/pop.

Interest in Oklahoma City comes as somewhat of a surprise, as New York City garnered many of the top bids during earlier rounds.

Through round 21, only 43 licenses failed to receive a bid, with the 6 megahertz, unpaired E-Block licenses accounting for 37 of those lonely licenses.

Round 21 was also status quo on the national commercial-public safety D-Block license, which for the 20th consecutive round failed to receive a bid. The license remained at its $472 million price standing since round one.