WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission completed the auction for the lower 80 channels of the 800 MHz band less than a week before it plans to begin re-auctioning the personal communications services licenses reclaimed from bankrupt NextWave Telecom Inc.
Nextel Spectrum Acquisitions Corp. paid $27.15 million for 2,579 licenses-nearly all of the $28.9 million that was bid for 2,800 licenses.
Southern Communications Services Inc., a unit of Southern Co., bid $817,500 for 90 licenses.
The rest of the licenses were purchased by 20 other companies.
It took 151 rounds for the auction to be completed.
Nextel paid $374,000 for a license in the Augusta-Aiken, Ga., market, while it was able to get licenses for the New York market for considerably less (between $38,000 and $125,000).
