New York City license tops $2.5B, Los Angeles surpasses $2B
Another day, another billion dollars in the Federal Communications Commission’s Auction 97, which this morning surpassed $39.5 billion in total potential winning bids through round 42. The latest round included 113 new bids totaling $181.4 million, or about half of what it was generating per round yesterday. Total bids over the past four rounds have added $1 billion in total proceeds.
The auction has now comfortably more than doubled the $19.6 billion in total winning bids generated by Auction 73 (700 MHz auction), which was the previous record holder in terms of money raised.
After not receiving bids for several rounds, the auction’s two most expensive licenses received new bids in round 42. The J-Block license centered on New York City received one new bid, pushing its total value over $2.5 billion, while the J-Block license centered on Los Angeles received two bids in the latest round, pushing its total value just over the $2 billion mark. A number of smaller licenses also received two new bids during the round, with dozens of G-Block licenses each receiving one new bid.
The paired licenses up for bid include three 5×5 megahertz licenses (G-, H- and I-Blocks) and a single 10×10 megahertz license (J-Block). The G-Block licenses are carved into commercial market area-sized licenses, which total 734 licenses covering the country. The remaining blocks are economic area-sized that will total 176 licenses covering the country. The 15 megahertz of unpaired spectrum is split into two licenses, one with 5 megahertz of total spectrum parsed out on an EA basis, and the other with 10 megahertz of spectrum also in an EA configuration.
Auction 97′s success also has allowed for the full funding of the government’s FirstNet program, which was earmarked to receive $7 billion in funding from auction proceeds. Auction 96, which was conducted earlier this year, generated more than $1.5 billion in proceeds that were also targeted to help fund FirstNet. Combined with the $10.6 billion from the current auction being set aside for relocation compensation for current users of the spectrum bands, the federal government looks set to pocket at least $25 billion from the spectrum auctions.
At the end of the latest round, 15 licenses did not have winning bids. Winning bidders will not be announced until the auction ends, with the auction set to continue until there are no new bids placed in a round.
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