The unbearable transparency of anonymity

Proponents of blind bidding claim the nearly $20 billion in pledges for 700 MHz licenses as well as the possible addition of a few new players (though unlikely national) in the wireless space vindicate their emphatic embrace of the no-name competition methodology. And who can argue with them?
Yet, on another level, what anonymity? Unless conventional wisdom is wrong, Google bid the C Block national package to the required $4.6 billion threshold to trigger the open access condition and Verizon Wireless followed with high bids on regional licenses to secure ultimate license rights. There has been little drop off in analysis of the 700 MHz auction due to blind bidding. Indeed, play-by-play and color on 700 MHz bidding have been as confident and copious as in past auctions where identities of contestants were known throughout the contests.
Sure, things could change before the auction finally sputters out. But there seems little mystery in either of the two main attractions of the 700 MHz auction. We learned shortly before the auction began that Frontline Wireless would not win the national commercial-public safety D Block for which it had lobbied so diligently. You have to play to win, but that can’t happen when you curiously cease to be. It would be interesting to know who placed the lonely $472 million bid on the D Block in Round 1, but really matters little. Odds are good the D Block will not attract a minimum bid of $1.3 billion, meaning it will have to be re-auctioned under possibly differently rules.
It won’t be long (hopefully) before the names of winning bidders will be out there for the world to see and pick over. Again, interesting, but largely anticlimactic. Indeed, auction results are unlikely to satisfy the curiosity of the telecom-tech sector, policymakers and others who remain largely in the dark about what exactly led to Frontline’s untimely demise, notwithstanding anonymously sourced news-reporting and blogs that paint a disturbing picture implicating Cyren Call in the affair. Lifting the anti-collusion gag rule is not apt to open the flood-gates of enlightening details. Some in the public interest community have called for an investigation of the matter. It may not be enough simply to tweak the D Block rules in hopes someone will spend billions on the spectrum and equipment needed for a national commercial-public safety broadband network. People are watching. They may be eager to know what happened, why first responders who regularly risk their lives for us likely will have to wait even longer before getting the communications tools they need and deserve.