After 8 rounds, the FCC’s auction of licenses for Advanced Wireless Services (AWS-1) spectrum has reached $2.4 billion in bids.
The Top Ten Bidders by Net Provisionally Winning Bids so far:
- T-Mobile License
- Dolan Family Holding (holder in Cablevision)
- Spectrum Co. (backed by Comcast, Time Warner, Cox and Sprint Nextel)
- Cricket Licensee
- MetroPCS
- AWS Wireless Inc.
- Wireless DBS LLC – (backed by DirecTV, News Corp, Fox, EchoStar, Rupert Murdoch, and EchoStar)
- Barat Wireless
- Cavalier Wireless
- Antares Holdings
Daily results from the bidding are posting online. http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/default.htm?job=auction_summary&id=66
- AWS-1 bands are currently being used for a variety of Government and non-Government services and require relocating incumbent operations. The lower half of these paired frequencies, i.e., 1710-1755 MHz, is currently a Government band and is covered by a Congressional mandate that requires that auction proceeds fund the estimated relocation costs of incumbent federal entities. The upper half of these paired frequencies, i.e., 2110-2150 MHz band, is used by private (including state and local governmental public safety services) and common carrier fixed microwave services (�FS�). The 2150-2155 MHz band is currently used by the Broadband Radio Service (BRS).