After three rounds of the FCC's new six half-hour-round bidding schedule, the AWS-3 spectrum auction has passed $41 billion ($41,026,521,500). There were 91 new bids in the most recent round (52) and $90,015,100 in new bids.
The auction is in day 14 (it began Nov. 13) with 65 MHz of spectrum (1,614 geographic licenses) up for bid in the 1695-1710 MHz, 1755-1780 MHz, and 2155-2180 MHz bands.
There are 70 qualified bidders, the largest being AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile—Sprint sat it out.
The auction has blown by its $10.587 reserve price and the $15-$16 billion pre-auction estimates of some to be by far the largest-ever spectrum auction take, though the bids are provisional until the winners fill out the paperwork, put up the balance of the money and any objections to the auction are vetted.
Read more at B&C here.
