Reverse Auction Closes With Broadcasters' New Exit Price at $54.6 Billion

The second stage of the Federal Communications Commission's reverse portion of the spectrum incentive auction closed after 53 rounds, and wireless operators will now have to pay broadcasters at least $54,586,032,836 to get access to the 114 MHz of spectrum that will be on the block in the forward auction.

In the reverse auction, broadcasters are competing to give up spectrum or move to new channels in exchange for a government payment — low bidder wins. The $54.6 billion total is a sizeable drop in price from stage one, substantially closing the gap between broadcasters' asks and wireless companies' offers, who will get to start bidding on the 114 MHz of spectrum (actually less since some of that is guard band -- buffer spectrum -- in their own stage two forward auction starting next week.