FCC Speeds up Bidding in Wireless Sale

FCC SPEEDS UP BIDDING IN WIRELESS SALE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Jeremy Pelofsky]
The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday accelerated the bidding in its auction of licenses for advanced wireless services, which has already raised more than $13.6 billion after 15 days. The Commission added two rounds of bidding per day to bring the daily total to six rounds and cut the time of each round in half to 30 minutes, an effort to complete the sale as companies vie for 1,122 licenses around the country. The auction continues until there are no new bids, withdrawals or other activity. After 58 rounds, T-Mobile USA, the No. 4 U.S. wireless carrier and a unit of Germany's Deutsche Telekom, provisionally had the highest bids for 118 licenses with offers of almost $4.2 billion. No. 2 wireless carrier Verizon Wireless is second in the bidding, with provisionally winning bids of $2.8 billion for four licenses. While traditional wireless companies have largely dominated the auction, a group that includes the major cable television providers and No. 3 wireless carrier Sprint Nextel Corp. is in third place based on provisionally winning bids. That group, SpectrumCo LLC, includes Comcast, Time Warner and Cox Communications and has the highest bids for 133 licenses with offers of almost $2.3 billion.
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