Verizon, AT&T Big Winners in 700 MHz Auction

• Posted: Sunday, March 30, 2008
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• Author: pradhana
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• Filed under: Market Survey, Wireless Service

Verizon Wireless was the big winner for the 700 MHz auction after winning the Upper C Block of spectrum, which is laden with open access provisions. Google did not win any licenses. Satellite television company EchoStar subsidiary Frontier won a significant amount of licenses in the E Block--enough to give the company a nationwide footprint.

Verizon Wireless not only won the coveted C Block, but also most of the A Block and 77 licenses in the B Block, which contained the smallest licenses in the auction. For its part, AT&T managed to scoop up 227 of the smaller slices of spectrum.

Verizon Wireless ended up winning seven of the 11 pieces of the C Block, but the other four regional slices of the spectrum in that block went to other bidders. Triad 700 won the Alaska and Puerto Rico/U.S. Virgin Islands regional C Block slices for $1.78 million and $3.12 million, respectively. Small Ventures USA won a piece of the C Block that covers a part of the Gulf of Mexico for $1.05 million. Club 42 CM Limited won the C Block slice that covers Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and America Samoa with a $550,000 bid.

As part of the announcement, the FCC de-linked the D Block, which failed to meet its $1.3 billion reserve price, from the other four blocks. The D Block had special provisions for a public-private network that would benefit public safety workers. While the FCC plans to make the spectrum available before the DTV transition in February of next year, it said it has no immediate plans to re-auction the spectrum in Auction 76, which was the original contingent plan. -- [Brian Dolan / FierceBroadbandWireless]

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