The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) initiated ‘Auction 102’ – its sale of Upper Microwave Flexible Use Service (UMFUS) licences in the 24.25GHz-24.45GHz/24.75GHz-25.25GHz (24GHz) band – on 14 March, generating bids of USD304 million after one day of bidding.
The 38 registered bidders include the likes of AT&T (bidding as AT&T Spectrum Frontiers), Verizon Wireless (bidding as Cellco Partnership), T-Mobile US, US Cellular and Windstream. An additional bidder, ATI Sub, is said to be an affiliate of Sprint Corp. Participants targeting the US territories of Guam and the Northern Marianas Islands, meanwhile, include DOCOMO Pacific and GTA (bidding as TeleGuam Holdings).
By comparison, the FCC’s auction of 28GHz spectrum (‘Auction 101’) – which took place between November 2018 and January 2019 – raised just USD41.7 million on its first day of bidding and generated a total of USD702.6 million.