FCC speeds up pace of AWS-3 auction, now with more than $41B in bids

The FCC changed how it is conducting the AWS-3 spectrum auction, moving to six 30-minute bidding windows per day instead of the four, one-hour bidding rounds it had previously conducted. The goal of the shift is to give bidding entities less time to react between rounds and speed up the bidding, hastening the end of the auction. The auction will continue until there are no new bids or waivers in a given round.

According to the FCC, after round 57, the auction had raised $41.31 billion in provisional winning bids. There were 104 new bids in the latest round.

Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) and AT&T Mobility (NYSE: T) are expected to walk away with the bulk of the auction's 10x10 MHz paired spectrum licenses--including those in the nation's major metro areas. However, they likely will pay a pretty penny for those licenses. Article