January 27, 2005

The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) garnered more than $1.3 billion in new bids, following 6 rounds of bidding for no less than 242 wireless spectrum licenses that it is auctioning off as part of Auction 58 that began yesterday.

Regional metropolitan wireless operator MetroPCS Inc., which is participating in the auction through bidding partner Royal Street Communications L.L.C., posted the highest bid value after the first six rounds with more than $457 million in high bids for seven licenses, including a single $374.5 million bid for a 10-megahertz license covering Los Angeles.

T-Mobile USA Inc., which is participating through bidding partner Cook Inlet/VS GSM VII PCS L.L.C., has the second-highest bid total of $230.8 million for 24 licenses, followed by Verizon Wireless bidding partner Vista PCS L.L.C.'s high bids of $138.6 million for 31 licenses and Cingular Wireless L.L.C.'s bidding partner Edge Mobile L.L.C.'s high bids of $136.6 million for 27 licenses.

Royal Street's $374.5 million bid for the Los Angeles license is the highest single bid so far in the auction, followed by an $86 million bid by Cook Inlet for a license covering Houston and a $71.4 million bid by Royal Street for another license covering Houston.

Analysts were initially expecting the auction to garner approximately $3.5 billion in total bids and said the auction could last for several weeks. Verizon Wireless, which is expected to be active in the auction, has announced a pair of private spectrum acquisitions during the past several days that could temper its participation.

The carrier reported today it had signed an agreement to purchase spectrum licenses in 10 markets from Urban Comm-North Carolina for $68.5 million. The deal included 10-, 20- and 30-megahertz licenses in the 1.9 GHz frequency band covering 3.9 million potential customers in parts of North Carolina.

Urban Comm, which is in the middle of bankruptcy proceedings, announced late last year a deal to sell all or part of 20 spectrum licenses in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia to Triton PCS Holdings Inc. for $113 million.

Earlier this week, Verizon Wireless said it had acquired St. Paul, Minn.-based operator Cellular 2000 of St. Cloud, including its cellular spectrum license covering 250,000 potential customers and serving 42,000 subscribers in St. Cloud for an undisclosed amount.

Source: RCR Wireless News

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