The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced that Auction 105 – its sale of 5G-suitable (3550MHz-3650MHz) 3.5GHz spectrum – has concluded after 76 rounds of bidding. Gross proceeds reached USD4.586 billion, with the winning bidders securing 20,625 (91.1%) of the 22,631 available concessions. The spectrum on offer represented the ‘greatest number of spectrum licences ever in a single FCC auction’. Going forward, the regulator intends to release a public notice in the coming days, providing the names of the winning bidders and announcing deadlines for payments and other post-auction procedures needed for the prompt issuance of licences.
As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, the auction offered seven Priority Access Licences (PALs) in each county-based licence area. Each PAL is a ten-year renewable licence, consisting of an unpaired 10MHz channel. The 271 registered bidders included mobile giants AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile US, alongside a mixture of fixed line operators, cablecos, regional telcos and utility firms.