In the U.S., The Federal Communications Commission’s biggest ever auction of wireless spectrum has ended drawing a record $44.9 billion in bids.
A total of $44.899 billion was bid in the auction. After taking into account certain discounts that were allowed, the net proceeds add up to a little more than $41.3 billion.
The big winner in the auction was AT&T, who won J Block (paired spectrum at 1770-1780, and 2170-2180MHz) with a total of 251 licenses. AT&T was the big bidder at $18.2 billion. All told, AT&T bought itself a nearly contiguous 10x10MHz block of spectrum which covers approximately 96 of the top 100 markets.
Verizon was the second largest bidder, spending $10.4 billion on 181 licenses in the aforementioned J Block, as well as in the H Block (1760-1765 and 2160-2165MHz) and I Block (1765-1770 and 2165-2170MHz).
[table style=”table-striped”]
| Bidder | Bidding name | Total amount spent | Price per MHz-POP | |
| 1 | AT&T | AT&T Wireless Services 3 LLC | $18,189,285,000 | $2.88 |
| 2 | Verizon | Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon | $10,430,017,000 | $2.92 |
| 3 | Dish | Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless LicenseCo | $9,995,567,775 ($13,327,423,700 in gross bids plus a 25 percent discount for being designated entities) |
$1.68 |
| 4 | T-Mobile | T-Mobile License LLC | $1,774,023,000 | $1.63 |
| 5 | U.S. Cellular | Advantage Spectrum, L.P. | $338,304,000 | – |
| 6 | John A. Dooley and TerreStar and Jarvinian |
2014 AWS Spectrum Bidco | $291,810,000 | – |
| 7 | America Movil and Carlos Slim Family |
Puerto Rico Telephone Company | $170,901,300 | – |
| 8 | William M. Mounger II | Tristar License Group | $47,106,000 | – |
| 9 | Francis J. DiRico | NE Colorado Cellular | $30,718,000 | – |
| 10 | Joseph Sofio | Sofio, Joseph A | $13,483,500 | – |
[/table]
The big surprise in the auction was the DISH Network, who bid nearly $10 billion. That figure includes discounts for its designated bidding entities Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless. In all, Northstar got 345 licenses, and SNR Wireless won 357 licenses on different blocks, with some in major markets like Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.
T-Mobile won 157 licenses in the 5x5MHz paired spectrum in various blocks across the country. The smaller pairings give Team Magenta the ability to aggregate with its existing AWS-1 holdings.
Each winning bidder must have on deposit with the FCC enough funds to cover the down payments on its winning bids by 6 p.m Eastern Time on February 13.
