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Published: March 23, 2008, 3:53 p.m.

b'Intro: On March 18, FCC Auction 73 bidding round 261 ended and, after 38 days and $19.592 billion\\nin bids (almost double the $10 billion the FCC had hoped for), the FCC\\nclosed out the auction. In this podcast we review and discuss the\\nauction results.


Mike: Gordon, can you give us an overview of the auction results?

Sure Mike - this comes from the FCC auction website linked up in the shownotes.

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Mike: Before we get into the auction\\nresults, can you give us an overview of the different spectrum blocks?\\nI know we\'ve done this before but - how about a quick refresher?

Sure Mike - this comes from a blog I wrote back on January 14.

Back in 2005 Congress passed a law that requires all U.S. TV\\nstations to convert to all digital broadcasts and give up analog\\nspectrum in the 700 MHz frequency band. This law will free up 62 MHz of\\nspectrum in the 700 MHz band and effectively eliminate channels between\\n52 and 69. This conversion, which has a deadline of February 18, 2009, has freed up spectrum that is being split up by the FCC into five blocks:

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• A-Block - 12 MHz, split up into 176 smaller economic areas
  
• B-Block - 12 MHz, split up into 734 cellular market areas
  
• C-Block - 22 MHz, up into 12 regional licenses
  
• D-Block - 10MHz, combined with approximately 10MHz allocated for public safety, a single national license.
  
• E-Block - 6 MHz, split up into 176 smaller economic areas

\\nSo in summary, each spectrum block in the 700 MHz\\nauction, except for the national public safely D-Block, has been\\nassigned an area designation by the FCC.
All FCC areas, along with names, county lists, maps and map info data can be found on the Commission\'s website linked here.


Mike: How about a quick review of the D-Block again?

Sure Mike, this also comes from that January 14 blog:

The D-Block lately has been most interesting to watch. Early on it appeared Frontline Wireless\\nwould be one of the biggest bidders for D-Block spectrum - the company\\nwas setup for D-Block and had worked closely with the FCC on putting\\ntogether specifications for the spectrum. Frontline built a formidable team including Vice Chairman Reed Hundt, who\\nserved as Chairman of the FCC between 1993 and 1997. The business plan,\\nthe organization, the technology seemed to all be in place........ On\\nJanuary 12 the company placed the following statement on their website:

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Frontline Wireless is closed for business at this time. We have no further comment.

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Another company, Cyren Call also looked like they were planning to bid on the D-Block Auction but did not.

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What\\nhappen? Rumor has it Frontline could not attract enough funders - it\\nseemed like a good investment - or at least you may think so up front.\\nMany are now asking if the FCC\'s approach to solving the public safety\\ninter-operability problem is in trouble.

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Mike: OK, how about the results?

Here\'s a summary from the Wall Street Journal:

Verizon\\nand AT&T accounted for 80% of the nearly $20 billion AT&T\\nagreed to pay $6.6 billion for 227 spectrum licenses in markets\\ncovering much of the country. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, won 109 licenses for $9.4 billion.

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Dish Network Corp., which bid for spectrum through Frontier Wireless\\nLLC, did acquire a significant footprint, winning 168 licenses\\nthroughout the country for $712 million. Satellite-TV providers are\\nlooking for a way into the high-speed Internet business to better\\ncompete with cable and phone companies. But Credit Suisse analyst Chris\\nLarsen said in a research note that the particular segment of spectrum\\nDish acquired would make it difficult for the company to offer\\ninteractive wireless broadband service. He said the company could use\\nthe spectrum to broadcast data or for on-demand video.

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Google had indicated interest in a nationwide package of licenses\\nbefore the auction, but it bid just high enough to trigger rules that\\nwill force winners of one segment of spectrum, known as the C-block, to\\nallow any mobile devices and applications on their networks. Verizon\\nwon the lion\'s share of spectrum in this segment. Google had pushed for\\nthe regulation since its efforts to sell some mobile services had been\\nstymied by major carriers, which traditionally have strictly limited\\nthe kinds of devices that consumers could use on their networks. Even\\nbefore the auction had wrapped up, Google scored a victory as Verizon\\nvoluntarily agreed to open its network to devices it doesn\'t sell\\nthrough its own retail network. Verizon released details of its new\\npolicy on Wednesday.

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Mike: Were there any licenses that dod not get any bids?

There were 1,099 licenses auctioned and only eight did not receive any bids:

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Mike: So, what will happen to these?

These\\nlicenses will need to be re-auctioned by the FCC. I\'m guessing they\\nwere over priced, the FCC will end up dropping the re-auction minimum\\nbid and they will end up going quickly.

Mike: What\'s going to happen with D-Block?

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The\\nPublic Safety D-Block did not meet the minimum bid and the FCC will\\nhave to decide what to do. It looks like the FCC could go one of two\\ndirections for the re-auction - drop the price or change the\\nrequirements. From the start, the public safety D-Block auction was seen as one of the biggest auction challenges...... I\'ve expressed my opinion on the D-Block in the past........ the FCC still has some major work ahead before they can close this one out.

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This comes from InfoWorld:

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Mike: So, it looks like the big carriers won?

For the most part, yes. Kevin Martin had an interesting quote in an EFluxMedia piece though:


Things still could get interesting!
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