Inside the Wireless Spectrum Auction

The 700MHz spectrum auction ended March 18 after 50 days of bidding, takingin $19.6 billion for the federal government, even though the D block?reservedfor emergency access by the government but in use daily by private industry?didnot meet its reserve price and may be reauctioned at a later date.

Harold Feld, senior vice president of the Media Access Project, an advocacygroup that promotes the public interest to the Federal Communications Commission,called the auction a success, particularly because of its use of anonymousbidding.

?When you compare the number of bidders that came to the table and theamount they were willing to bid with the Advanced Wireless Spectrum auction [in2006] ? it really worked as advertised in making the auction competitive,? Feldsaid. ?So even if the incumbents walked away with most of the licenses, atleast they had to pay market value for them instead of getting them for a song,which is what happened in the AWS auction.?

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