In an auction over 5G airwaves across the United States, bidding has exceeded $76.5 billion, making it the most expensive auction to be run by the Federal Communications Commission to date. The auction, which began last month, started out with 57 potential bidders.
With the bidding war already reaching new heights, the field has been narrowed to major companies such as the three leading mobile wireless carriers in the U.S., namely AT&T, T-Mobile US Inc, and Verizon Communications Ltd. These companies are battling it out to purchase frequencies in the so-called C-band.
Sasha Javid, chief operating officer of wireless data company BitPath, explained that this auction “blows all auctions away”. Not only did it far exceed the $45 million bids made in FCC auctions in 2015, but it has already exceeded analysts’ predictions of a total spend of $47 million.
While the largest bidders started proceedings with approximately $70 billion in cash at their disposal, many may now need to resort to bond markets in 2021.
Whoever wins in the auction will also have to pay $13 billion or more to anyone using the airwaves currently, notably prominent satellite companies such as SES SA and Intelsat SA.
