With 51 rounds completed, the FCC's latest midband spectrum auction has raised just under $400 million (specifically, $391,156,630) for the treasury, with only a relative handful of licenses currently with more than one bided and Guam drawing the highest bid at $4,640,000, followed by L.A. at $3,834,000.
As of Tuesday morning, 7,679 licenses had only one bidder while only 193 had more than one and 145 had none at all. When there are no more licenses with demand exceeding supply (currently those 193) the auction will close.
Currently the FCC is holding four, one-hour rounds, but could increase the frequency and decrease the duration in a last push to prod bidders to make their best final offer.
Also: FCC to Free up 2.5 GHz for 5G
The FCC is auctioning about 8,000 county-based, flexible-use licenses for spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band, which had previously been reserved for educational broadband services (EBS) that flexible use likely to be for 5G but will now be shared.
The FCC voted back in 2019 to free up the band for 5G. Educational users with the licenses can continue to use it or lease it to others (as many have already been doing), transfer it to someone else, or use it for something else.
EBS, formerly Instructional Television Fixed Service, or ITFS, was used in the 1960s for closed-circuit broadcasts to educational institutions, but was rebooted in the early 2000s and pointed toward broadband.
The FCC has been under pressure to get moving on more midband--5G sweet-spot spectrum because of its propagation characteristics--a box the 2.5 GHz auction item checks off. ■
