Aug. 14, 2006

Bidding is rapidly picking up speed in the FCC’s advanced wireless services (AWS) spectrum auction.

The total value of provisionally winning bids has jumped from more than $2.4 billion late Friday to more than $4.1 billion in the two rounds held so far today.

Dolan Family Holdings L.L.C., backed by Charles Dolan, chairman of CableVision Systems Corp., made the highest bid yet: $537 million for the 20-megahertz F-block license covering the Northeastern United States.

The entity also was the high bidder on eight other licenses, all of which covered cities in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.

Top 10 Highest Bids in Round 10

AW-REA001-F
Northeast Dolan Family Holdings, LLC $536,657,000
AW-REA006-F
West SpectrumCo LLC $442,415,000
AW-REA003-F
Great Lakes T-Mobile License LLC $297,031,000
AW-REA002-F
Southeast Wireless DBS LLC $276,064,000
AW-REA005-F
Central Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless $226,798,000
AW-REA001-E
Northeast Cingular AWS, LLC $221,754,000
AW-REA001-D
Northeast Denali Spectrum License, LLC $221,754,000
AW-REA006-E
West Cingular AWS, LLC $219,378,000
AW-REA006-D
West MetroPCS AWS, LLC $171,550,000
AW-REA004-F
Mississippi Valley Cellco Partnership Verizon Wireless $163,133,000

T-Mobile USA Inc. was the top bidder for 30 licenses in the most recent round of bidding, including an F-block license covering the Great Lakes region and two licenses in Hawaii.

Most of its other licenses covered metropolitan areas around the country, such as Boston, Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, satellite providers EchoStar Communications Corp. and DirecTV Group Inc. placed high bids on licenses covering the coastal Southeastern United States, the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley regions, as well as spectrum in San Francisco, the New York City metro area and two licenses in Alaska.

Sprint Nextel Corp.’s joint venture with four cable companies was the top bidder for three licenses at the end of the 10th round.

Of those three, two licenses offer the JV 30 MHz of spectrum in Hawaii, and an F-block license covering the Western region of the continental United States.

The FCC is currently holding four AWS auction rounds per day.

Source: RCR News