Spectrum Bidders Get Set

SPECTRUM BIDDERS GET SET
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Corey Boles corey.boles@dowjones.com and Roger Cheng]
Google, AT&T and Verizon Wireless are among the bidders expected to take part in a major auction of government airwaves next month. The Federal Communications Commission intends to sell off some 62 megahertz of some of the most powerful spectrum ever to be made available to the commercial wireless industry. The sale results from television broadcasters moving from the current analog signal to a new digital format, which requires substantially less spectrum use. Monday was the deadline for bidders to formally notify the FCC of their intent to participate in the auction of communications spectrum. The auction is set to begin on Jan. 16. Cable provider Cox Communications Inc. and Leap Wireless International Inc. have also disclosed plans to bid in the auction. In addition, Frontline Wireless, an entrepreneurial group backed by several well-known and politically connected individuals, said it would participate. Sprint Nextel Corp., the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier by subscribers, said it won't take part in the airwaves sale. The two largest cable companies, Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc., said they wouldn't bid in the auction. Echostar Communications Corp., the smaller of the two satellite-television companies, will bid in the auction, although it won't do so in conjunction with rival DirecTV Group Inc., as it did in last year's auction
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119678638739413250.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
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* Wireless firm to bid for airwaves
Leap Wireless, which sells pay-as-you-go mobile-phone service to customers who lack the credit to qualify for contracts, said Tuesday that it planned to bid in a U.S. government auction of airwaves in January to expand its network.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-spectrum5dec05,1,7052953.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business
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