Round Nine: ASW-3 Auction Total Nears $6.5 Billion

By John Eggerton
published

WASHINGTON -- After nine rounds of the Federal Communications Commission's AWS-3 auction, bid totaled $6,435,467,100, or $925,136,600 more than in the previous round.

The bidding could go on for days, weeks or even months, with the pace usually leveling off after the early flurry -- that flurry continued Monday (Nov. 17). Bidding continues until nobody bids in a round or exercises a waiver, which means the bidder is passing but wants the chance to bid again.

In the AWS-3 auction, 65 Megahertz of spectrum is up for bid, part of a congressional -- and White House -- mandate to free up wireless spectrum for mobile broadband.

For more, please visit broadcastingcable.com.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.