Bids Total $2.78 Billion in Opening Day of Auction for Airwaves
199666
The Federal Communications Commissionâs auction of federally owned airwaves is eventually expected to bring the government at least $10 billion.
616505
Bidding stalled on Tuesday in the  closely watched auction of a piece of wireless airwaves that  the U.S. government is selling, according to data released by  the Federal Communications Commission.
627330
The U.S. sale of airwaves for advanced wireless services grossed a record $13.9 billion, and spectrum-hungry wireless carrier T-Mobile USA, and a group of cable companies were the highest bidders.
644194
The German auction for 28 broadband wireless access (BWA) or Wimax licences raised a total 56 million euros (74 million dollars), the regulatory authority Bundesnetzagentur has announced.
526069
FCC rules governing the upcoming auction of the 700-MHz spectrum include this requirement: You need a minimum of $4.6 billion, and as much as $10 billion, to place a bid.
112966
Top bidders put up a total of more than $2.4 billion in the opening round of the Federal Communications Commissionâs auction of coveted U.S. government-owned airwaves.
97653
The bidding topped $3.7 billion on  the second day of the Federal Communications Commission's  auction of government-owned airwaves, but there were no new  suitors Friday for a closely watched block of spectrum to be  shared with public safety agencies.
598830
The minimum bid of $4.6 billion was made on Thursday in the FCC's 700Mhz spectrum auction triggering an rule that will force the license winner to allow any device and any application on the network.
464845
Since its 700-MHz auction began on Jan. 24, the FCC has raised more than $18.8 billion. That well surpasses the agency's own early estimates of attracting between $10-15 billion.
437467
Verizon Wireless is adding to its considerable spectrum holdings with the proposed acquisition of airwaves owned by NextWave Telecom. Under terms of the agreement, Verizon will pay US&#36;3 billion for NextWave's PCS spectrum licenses in 23 U.S. markets.
352370
Bids in the government's airwaves auction hit $974 million as large carriers wheel and deal to win coveted licenses covering lucrative markets.
690019
The high bids totaled $3.2 billion in the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's auction of wireless spectrum licenses in the 700MHz band.
387255
Almost &#36;1 billion in bids were made on Wednesday on the opening day of a U.S. government auction of valuable wireless airwaves, with companies fighting hard for the Los Angeles market.
632494
Bidding stalled at $4.71 billion on  Thursday for a key piece of wireless airwaves being auctioned  by the U.S. government.
250438
(InfoWorld) - T-Mobile USA Inc. came out the biggest spender in the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's Advanced Wireless Services spectrum auction, which ended Monday. Participants bid a total of nearly US$13.9 billion on 1,087 licenses to offer 3G (third-generation) mobile services in areas across the U.S. The auction began Aug. 9 and went on for 161 rounds. The radio frequencies could be used for services including data, voice and video on mobile devices. The auction is the first of two that should roughly double the amount of radio spectrum available in the U.S. for mobile services. The FCC is also preparing to auction frequencies around 700 MHz that have been used for TV broadcasts. Moving those to mobile use could take years. T-Mobile is playing catch-up against bigger carriers in introducing 3G services. Its bidding company, T-Mobile License LLC, had the winning bids on 120 licenses and will pay almost $4.2 billion for its spectrum. All told, the licenses it won could reach almost 475 million people, a number greater than the U.S. population. There was a wide variety of licenses up for auction, ranging from local to regional coverage. The five biggest bidders, led by T-Mobile, represented the country's biggest cellular companies. Cellco Partnership, representing Verizon Wireless Inc., came in second place with $2.8 billion in bids for 13 licenses. SpectrumCo LLC, representing Sprint Nextel Corp. and cable partners, bid almost $2.4 billion for 137 licenses and Metro PCS AWS LLC bid almost $1.4 billion for eight licenses. Cingular Wireless LLC, represented by Cingular AWS LLC, came in fifth with bids of more than $1.3 billion for 48 licenses. Overall, more than half of the 104 winning bidders that participated were certified as small businesses, according to the FCC. The agency put 1,122 licenses up for auction. The unsold licenses will be made available again in a future auction. The winners need to make down payments within ten days after the FCC puts out a public notice on the close of the auction. In the same time period, they have to submit long-form applications for the licenses.
369123
An undisclosed bidder yesterday met the government's minimum asking price at an auction for one of technology's most coveted assets: airwaves that will be used to build a new wireless network.
661489
A nationwide block of&#160;spectrum in the 700MHz band being auctioned&#160;by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission received a high bid exceeding the &quot;reserve,&quot; or minimum, price of $4.6 billion on Thursday morning.A block of eight licenses covering the 22MHz C block of spectrum being sold by the FCC received a high bid of $4.7 billion in the 17th round of the 700MHz auctions, completed early Thursday. The C block is the portion of the 700MHz band on which the FCC will require open-access rules, meaning the winning bidder must allow outside devices such as mobile handsets from other carriers and must allow users to run outside applications on the network.Some critics have complained that the&#160;open-access rules&#160;would suppress bidding on the C block, but&#160;Google has pledged to bid&#160;at least $4.6 billion on the C block. Bidding is anonymous during the 700MHz auctions, so it&#39;s impossible to tell which company has the high bid.Through the 17th bidding round, high bids on the entire 62MHz of spectrum being auctioned totalled nearly $12.8 billion. The FCC and U.S. Congress had budgeted the auctions to raise at least $10 billion, but many observers had expected the auctions would raise much more than that.One block of spectrum unlikely to reach the FCC&#39;s reserve price is the D block, a 10MHz band of spectrum that would be paired with another 10MHz assigned to public safety agencies. The FCC required that the winning bidder build a nationwide voice and data network to be shared between commercial users and public safety agencies such as police and fire departments.After 17 auction rounds, the high bid for the D block stood at $472 million, far short of the $1.33 billion reserve price set by the FCC. That bid happened in the auction&#39;s first round on Jan. 24, and there&#39;s been no higher bids since then. If the reserve price is not met, the FCC would have to re-auction the D block.Many members of the U.S. Congress pushed for a public safety network, after emergency responders couldn&#39;t communicate with each other during the 9/11 terrorists attacks and more recent disasters. Police and fire departments in neighboring cities often use different devices on different blocks of spectrum.Critics have pointed to an FCC rule for the D block saying the winning bidder would have to give up millions of dollars in a deposit if it couldn&#39;t come to an agreement on network design with the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST), which controls the public safety spectrum. Scott Cleland, founder of telecom analyst firm The Precursor Group, called that provision &quot;onerous.&quot;&quot;That is not a negotiation,&quot; said Cleland, speaking at a 700MHz forum Wednesday. &quot;Auctions are free markets, and people don&#39;t have to show up.&quot;The FCC may have to re-auction the spectrum without the reserve price and perhaps without public safety obligations, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Spectrum Policy Program at think tank the New America Foundation. The PSST could use its block of spectrum to negotiate service with the auction winner if no build-out rules are in place, he said.A PSST spokesman wasn&#39;t immediately available for comment on the bidding.