The FCC's C-Band auction took up where it left off before the holiday break, with gross proceeds up over $1.5 billion in round 46 to $71,540,139,996 in gross proceeds over $69,831,352,266 in round 45 a dozen days ago.
The auction set the record for gross proceeds in an FCC auction almost $30 billion ago, when it topped the the FCC's 2014 AWS-3 auction, the previous record holder, which closed with $44,899,451,600 in gross proceeds.
The auction has already blown past early low-end estimates of $25 billion to $30 billion in gross proceeds and is pushing toward the top estimate of something north of $75 billion.
The FCC voted last February to free up 300 MHz of C-Band (3.7-3.98 GHz) satellite spectrum for terrestrial 5G broadband, 280 of that to be auctioned and 20 MHz to be used as a guard band between wireless users and the incumbent satellite operators that will use the remaining 200 MHz to continue to deliver network programming to broadcaster and cable operator (and other) clients.
Also Read: C-Band Auction Tops $33 Billion
Bidders in the auction include AT&T, Cellco Partnership, Cox, T-Mobile and United States Cellular.
