Verizon, T-Mobile Likely to Lead FCC Sale
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Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile are expected to be the most aggressive bidders for U.S. wireless airwaves in a January auction that analysts say could give them added resources to expand and improve service.
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U.S. regulators are set to give Cingular Wireless final approval for its &#36;41 billion purchase of AT&T Wireless Services Inc.  on Monday, on condition that it sells assets including wireless airwaves in more than 16 markets, according to a source close to the deal.
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Alltel Corp.  has stepped up efforts to sell itself to carriers such as AT&T Inc. , Verizon Communications Inc.  and Sprint Nextel Corp. , said people familiar with the matter, as the Little Rock, Ark.-based wireless company tries to chart a new future, The Wall Street Journal reported.
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PHILADELPHIA/NEW YORK  - Sprint Corp. is close to  an agreement buy Nextel Communications Inc. for more than $36  billion in a mostly stock deal that would combine the No. 3 and  No. 5 U.S. wireless telephone companies, sources familiar with  the situation said on Friday.
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The U.S. sale of airwaves for   advanced wireless services grossed a record $13.9 billion when   it ended on Monday, and spectrum-hungry U.S. wireless carrier   T-Mobile USA topped the bidding by offering almost $4.2 billion   for 120 licenses.
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Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell said yesterday he&#39;ll probably issue a recommendation this month on whether to approve Cingular Wireless LLC&#39;s $41 billion purchase of AT&amp;T Wireless Services Inc.
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The upcoming FCC auction of 700-MHz spectrum is one of the biggest sell-offs of radio spectrum in years, and it's expected to raise at least $10 billion. Wired News explains what's at stake with this list of questions and answers.
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The high bids totalled $3.2 billion in the U.S. Federal Communications Commission&#39;s&#160;auction of wireless spectrum licenses in the 700MHz band&#160;after three rounds and a day and a half of bidding.That figure is far short of the $10 billion Congress and the FCC expect to raise in&#160;the auction, which opened Thursday, but bidding could continue for weeks. In most cases, the high bids don&#39;t yet meet the FCC&#39;s reserve price set for minimum winning bids.A fourth round of bidding will happen Friday afternoon.The 700MHz auctions represent the last large chunk of spectrum available for the FCC to auction in the foreseeable future. The spectrum, now used to carry over-the-air television signals, can be used to carry long-range wireless broadband traffic. Consumer groups have said the spectrum represents the &quot;last, best hope&quot; for a nationwide wireless broadband network that competes with cable and telecom broadband services.For sale is 62MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz band. In late 2005, after a decade of debate, Congress passed a law requiring U.S. TV stations to move to all-digital broadcasts and abandon analog spectrum between channels 52 and 69. The deadline for TV stations to end broadcasts in the 700MHz band is February 2009.After three rounds, 906 of the 1,099 available spectrum licenses had bids, with four more licenses receiving bids than at the end of round two late Thursday. High bids had totalled just under $2.8 billion after round 2, and just over $2.4 billion after round one Thursday morning.The top bid after the third round was $1.49 billion for eight of 12 regional licenses in the C block, a 22MHz block of spectrum covering all 50 states. The bidding for those C block licenses was up from $1.24 billion at the end of the second round. The FCC&#39;s reserve price for the C block is $4.6 billion, and the winning bidders of C block spectrum must allow any legal devices to connect to their network, including mobile phones purchased from other carriers.The second highest bid remained $472 million for the D block, a nationwide 10MHz chunk of spectrum to be paired with another 10MHz set aside for public safety agencies. The bidder of the D block would be required to build a national network to be jointly used by public safety agencies and commercial customers. The high bid for the D block has remained unchanged since round one.Bidding in the auction is anonymous.The A block, a 12MHz piece of spectrum covering parts of New York and the northeastern U.S., also generated interest. The high bid was $119.8 million after the third round, up from $100 million after the second round and $83.2 million after the first round. A similar chunk of spectrum in the E block, also covering the same area, has generated a high bid of $59.9 million after the third round.The high bid for a 12MHz block called the B block, for a local New York City license, stood at $85.6 million after rounds two and three.High bids for five blocks in the Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., areas were between $28 million and $55 million after round three.
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The $41 billion cash purchase of Redmond-based AT&amp;T Wireless by Cingular, likely to close this week, means long-term good news for customers, a decidedly mixed picture for shareholders and employees, and big payout to top AT&amp;T Wireless executives.
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Within weeks, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is expected to set conditions for the auction of the most valuable wireless spectrum still available in the United States.
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(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.
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The U.S. sale of airwaves for   advanced wireless services grossed a record $13.9 billion when   it ended on Monday, and spectrum-hungry wireless carrier   T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless and a group of cable companies   were the highest bidders.
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Verizon Communications Inc., the biggest US telephone company, will sell its 20.5 percent stake in Telus Corp. to raise cash to invest in its wireless and high- speed Internet services.
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One of the major questions as the U.S. Federal Communications Commission kicks off a multibillion-dollar spectrum auction Thursday is whether the auction will produce a winning bidder that will challenge telecom and cable-based broadband providers with a national wireless broadband network.
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The U S Federal Communications Commission may vote on Dec. 20 to make it easier for AT&amp;T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. to sell television service, FCC chairman Kevin Martin said.
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Investor's Business Daily - Verizon Wireless has agreed to buy NextWave Telecom's spectrum licenses in 23 markets for &#36;3 billion in cash as the nation's two regional Bell-owned wireless firms -- Verizon and Cingular -- gobble up the airwaves.
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U.S. regulators are set on  Monday to  give Cingular Wireless final approval for its $41 billion  purchase of AT&T Wireless Services Inc. AWE.N, on the  condition it sell assets, including wireless airwaves in more  than 16 markets, according to a source close to the deal.