Following the conclusion of Auction 108 on 29 August, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has confirmed that T-Mobile US secured the largest number of 2.5GHz licences on offer. The cellco paid a total of USD304.325 million for 7,156 regional concessions. By contrast, the North American Catholic Educational Programming Foundation – the next largest bidder in terms of the number of spectrum permits secured – bid for just 107 licences.
In terms of financial commitments, the next company in line was PTI Pacifica (trading as IT&E), which operates in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, followed by Guam-based TeleGuam Holdings, which trades as GTA. PTI Pacifica paid a total of USD17.690 million, while TeleGuam paid USD16.565 million.
Other notable bidders included: C Spire (bidding as Cellular South), which paid USD11.861 million for 38 licences; UScellular (USD3.500 million/34 licences); and Verizon Wireless (USD1.515 million/twelve licences). AT&T and DISH Network (bidding as Carbonate Wireless) were both qualified to bid in the auction, but both companies came away empty-handed.
As previously reported by CommsUpdate, Auction 108 – the FCC’s sale of unused spectrum in the 2496MHz-2690MHz (2.5GHz band) – drew to a close after 73 rounds of bidding. In total, the auction process generated gross proceeds of USD427.790 million, while 145 of the 8,017 available licences went unsold.