700 MHz Auction: C Block at $3.4B

Round 10: The provisional total of all bids in the FCC's 700 MHz auction stands at $7.4 billion after ten rounds of bidding. Provisionally winning bids increased the total by more than $857 million during the tenth round. The C Block of spectrum is now at a provisionally winning bid of $3.4 billion, which is getting close to the $4.6 billion reserve price that the FCC implemented. If the C Block does not meet its reserve price, the FCC will probably re-auction it. 

The D Block continues to hold steady at $472 million after the tenth round. Only one bidder bid on the D Block in the first round, while no one has bid on it since. The FCC set a reserve price of $1.3 billion for the D Block.

Round 9: Provisionally winning bids increased the total by more than $421 million during the ninth round, but no new bids were cast for the C Block or D Block of spectrum. The C Block still holds at $2.98 billion and the D Block is still at $472 million--after only one bid from the first round.

The New York Times issued a report [1], quickly picked up by a couple of blogs, that claimed the C Block was fetching $3.4 billion at the close of bidding yesterday. The Times report mistook the minimum bid for the next round as the current bid for the spectrum block. No bidder met the $3.4 billion minimum bid in the ninth round, so the pricetag remains at $2.98 billion for the C Block. 

For our full up to the minute auction coverage:
- check out our dedicated 700 MHz auction page [2]
- see this chart for detailed results from Round 10 [3]