Federal Communications Commission (FCC) spectrum auction bids passed the $16 billion mark on Tuesday, far in excess of the federal regulatory body’s $10.5 billion minimum goal. Round 16 of bidding will kick-off on Nov. 19.
Dubbed Auction 97, the FCC-led spectrum auction includes a total of 1,614 licenses composed of 50 megahertz of paired licensed spectrum in the 1755-1780/2155-2180 MHz bands and 15 megahertz of unpaired spectrum in the 1695-1710 MHz band.
The FCC set minimum opening bids for paired licenses based on a formula that considers 15 cents per megahertz/per potential customer.
Bidding on a specific license closes when the reserve price is met and, at the same time, after five rounds during which there’s no new bid for that license.
As expected, major metropolitan areas are drawing big bucks from carriers hoping to gain an edge in the competitive markets.
A spectrum license in the New York City-Long Island, N.Y.-area, which was going for a potential winning bid in the mid nine figures on Monday, was up to more than $1.4 billion by the time bidding closed Tuesday.
The bidding format for the auction consists of four, one-hour rounds of bidding scheduled. Past history has shown that the FCC spectrum auction could go on for at least one month.
