FCC Auction pulls in close to $20 BILLION

Who was the idiot who said requiring open access would lower the amount of money being bid? Wired reports that anonymous companies are bidding a combined total of amost *imagine Mike Myers as Dr. Evil* TWENTY BILLION DOLLARS *holds pinky to face* on the 700mhz bands being auctioned off. These are, of course the sections of spectrum being vacated when we switch to Digital Television in...(check the top right corner of the page).

After 32 rounds, the FCC has raised more than $18.8 billion in its 700-MHz auction, well surpassing its own early estimates of attracting between $10-15 billion in offers. That's undoubtedly good news for the agency. Since the auction began on Jan. 24, both the FCC and wireless experts have expressed ongoing concerns about meeting those estimates. Once the auction was underway, those worries were compounded by a shaky economic forecast and the possibility of a looming recession. Interestingly, the fiercest bidding continues to be for a handful of regional licenses, implying that most bidders are incumbent carriers, not new entrants to the wireless space, and that their biggest priority is simply to fill in various gaps in their own coverage.

So, that means that we already know the players here, and there isn't anyone lurking in the shadows ready to start a network except you-know-who. Speaking of which, here's the fun part:

As of Tuesday, no further offers have appeared for the nationwide C Block license package or the D Block combination commercial-public safety spectrum. The last anonymous bid for the C Block, for $4.71 billion, remains the highest to date and most industry experts believe there are only three companies currently in the running: Google, Verizon and AT&T. Google, if you recall, promised to bid at least $4.6 billion for the licenses. Verizon is also thought to be interested in the package now that the open access stipulations attached to this chunk of spectrum theoretically jibe with the company's newfound commitment to opening up its own network.

Google isn't going to start their own network. This is going to be a Verizon versus AT&T (and therefore CDMA versus GSM) format war. Beware debris from falling prices. Considering AT&T just bought a huge chunk of 700mhz and is looking to aggressively build out, this could get ugly.