FCC Wireless Spectrum Auction - UPDATE

This post is an update to the on going story of the 700 MHz wireless spectrum. The FCC has ended the auction after nearly 2 months, with the name of the winning bidder still not released. The total bidding amount surpassed $19 billion. The spectrum will not be released until sometime near February of 2009. Once this time comes, be on the look out for some major changes to how mobile devices are able to access wireless connections. Below is an excerpt from the article describing how the auction was completed.

“After nearly two months, the Federal Communication Commissions 700MHz spectrum auction has come to an end. Bidding far exceeded the FCC's pre-auction hopes of $10 billion to $15 billion, with the final tally coming in at $19,592,420,000. The auction ended this afternoon with a terse announcement by the Commission that there were no "bids, withdrawals, or proactive activity rule waivers" during round 261. "Therefore, Auction 73 has closed under the simultaneous stopping rule.

The auction topped the $19 billion mark back in early February, so bidding since then has been slow, to say the least. Of the two most closely watched chunks of spectrum in the auction, Blocks C and De, only C hit the FCC's reserve price. Block D fell over $800 million short of the FCC's minimum.”

To read more of this article, click here.