WASHINGTON-Aside from a computer glitch that pushed the auction of D-, E-and F-block broadband personal communications services licenses back to one round per day, bidders now are coping with the intensity of monitoring number and market changes twice a day.
At the end of Round 15, total bids on the 1,479 available licenses totaled 5,913; net revenues reached $676.5 million.
According to information provided by the Federal Communications Commission and BIA Consulting in Chantilly, Va., the top 10 bidders on these 10-megahertz licenses overall are: AT&T Wireless PCS (183 basic trading areas for $28.6 million), SprintCom (158 BTAs for $111.7 million), OPCSE-Galloway Consortium (156 BTAs for $56 million), Western PCS BTA One Corp. (117 BTAs for $59.7 million), Northcoast Operating Co. (113 BTAs for $81 million), Alltel Mobile Communications Inc. (63 BTAs for $29.2 million), BellSouth Wireless Inc. (50 BTAs for $25.7 million), Centennial Cellular Corp. (43 BTAs for $9.9 million), U S West Communications Inc. (34 BTAs for $3.4 million) and McLeod Inc. (23 BTAs for $12.9 million).
In its breakout analysis of the three individual blocks, BIA found that bidders were paying an average national price per pop of $1.06 in the D block, 94 cents per pop in the E block and 58 cents per pop in the F block.
The company bidder mix for the blocks is diverse, with the D and E blocks experiencing more competition by larger companies and a sprinkling of newcomers; the F block, of course, is being revisited by many former C-block players.
As of Round 15, the top five contenders for the D block in a few major markets include: SprintCom (Chicago, Orlando and Atlanta), OPCSE-Galloway (New York City and Indianapolis), Western PCS (Albuquerque, Honolulu and Seattle-Tacoma), Alltel Mobile (Mobile, Memphis and Cleveland) and AT&T Wireless PCS (Detroit, New Orleans and San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose).
The top five E-block players include: Norwich Communications Inc. (Los Angeles, New York City, Miami-Fort Lauderdale), SprintCom (Cleveland-Akron, Chicago and Houston), Western PCS (San Antonio, Denver and Milwaukee), BellSouth Wireless (Selma, Ala.; Natchez, Miss.; and Columbus, Ga.) and Alltel Mobile (Tallahassee, Fla.; Springfield, Mo.; and Pine Bluff, Ark.).
In the entrepreneur’s block, the following companies lead the bidding pack: Northcoast (West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, Fla.; New York City; and Boston), NextWave Power Partners Inc. (Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose and Chicago), Cook Inlet Western Wireless PV/SS PCS L.P. (Phoenix; Seattle-Tacoma; and Texarkana, Texas/Arkansas), AerForce Communications Communications B L.P. (Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.) and OPCSE-Galloway (St. Louis, Omaha and Baltimore).
The FCC still has no bidders on three D-block and 15 F-block licenses.
