The FCC’s ongoing AWS-3 auction in four days of bidding has easily passed its $10.5 billion reserve price.
Currently in the 16th round of bidding, the auction has already pulled in $16.4 billion in Provisional Winning Bids (PWB). The revenue so far is equivalent to $1 per MHz/POP. PWBs have been placed for 1,303 of the 1,614 licenses up for sale.
The Commission is auctioning off 65 MHz of both unpaired and paired spectrum in the 1695-1710 MHz, 1755-1780 MHz, and 2155-2180 MHz bands.
Of the 70 approved bidders in the proceeding, AT&T, Dish Network, T-Mobile and Verizon will likely walk away with the lion’s share of spectrum. All four companies currently have varying sizes of nationwide AWS portfolios. Sprint, which holds no AWS spectrum licenses, opted not to participate in the current auction.
BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk cast a top-line estimate for the auction of $1.25/MHz/POP, and said the auction now looks on track to exceed.
Filed Under: Carriers
