FCC's 700 MHz auction raises $20M in bids

A total of seven bidders pledged a combined $19.8 million for 16 of the 700 MHz spectrum licenses the FCC auctioned this week. The licenses up for grabs in the FCC's Auction 93 covered a number of locations in Puerto Rico and areas in North Carolina, North Dakota, Texas, Virginia and elsewhere.

These licenses were among those offered in the FCC's Auction 73 in 2008 but remained unsold or were licenses that a winning bidder defaulted. The FCC's Auction 73 raised a total of $19 billion, mainly from the likes of Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) and AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T).

The main bidders during this week's Auction 93 included Big Wave Ventures, Puerto Rico Telephone Company, U.S. Cellular and CenturyTel.

AT&T, Verizon and a number of other 700 MHz winners from 2008's auction plan to deploy LTE technology across their spectrum holdings.

For more:
- see this FCC Auction 92 site
- see this FCC release
- see this Phone Scoop article

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