Individual C-Block licenses push past package price: FCC’s Web glitch postpones final round

The 700 MHz spectrum auction took another unexpected turn today as bidding on individual C-Block licenses usurped the previous high bid for a package of eight C-Block licenses covering the 50 states. While the Federal Communication Commission’s Auction 73 continues to operate under blind-bidding rules, analysts are guessing that Verizon Wireless is behind the individual C-Block bids and has brushed past Google Inc., which is thought to have been the high bidder for the 50-state package.

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The action began in round 27 when the C Blocks for the Mississippi Valley and Central regional economic area grouping licenses received new high potential winning bids of $1.6 billion and $723 million, respectively. That was followed by a new bid of $502.8 million for the Northeast REAG in round 29 and new bids during round 30 on the Great Lakes ($1.1 billion), Southeast ($424.2 million), West ($319.8 million), Hawaii ($36.1 million) and Alaska ($1.7 million) REAGs. After all was said and done, the eight individual licenses totaled $4.734 billion, just nipping the $4.713 billion potential winning bid for the licenses as a package.

According to Optimal Markets Inc., the current potential winning bid for the Mississippi Valley C-Block license is equivalent to $2.36 per megahertz/potential customers covered; the Hawaii license is at $1.36 per MHz/pop; the Great Lakes region license at 87 cents per MHz/pop; the Central region license at 81 cents per MHz/pop; the Northeast region license at 46 cents per MHz/pop; the Southeast region at 39 cents per MHz/pop; the West at 29 cents per MHz/pop; and the Alaska license is at 12 cents per MHz/pop.

Despite the C-Block action, general bidding across the rest of the FCC’s 700 MHz licenses slowed to a crawl. There were only 405 new bids placed during round 27, falling to 232 new bids in round 28, 203 new bids in round 29 and 158 new bids in round 30. Today’s potential winning bids added a paltry $270.9 million to the auction’s total purse, which stood at $18.8 billion at the end of round 30.

The national commercial-public safety D-Block license continued to be ignored by bidders and remained at the $472 million potential winning bid it received during round one.

The FCC was forced to cut today’s bidding action short by one round as a technical glitch foiled the scheduled start of round 31. The auction is set to resume tomorrow morning at 9:30 am EST.