FCC Lists Bidders for Aug. AWS Auction
The FCC Wireless Bureau named the 252 companies filing short-form applications to participate in the Aug. advanced wireless services auction. The late-Fri. posting offered few surprises. The bureau accepted 81 applications, listing 171 as incomplete, meaning applicants must file more information. If Yahoo, Google or other nontraditional major plan to bid, they filed under different names.
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Most major wireless carriers are on the list in some way. Traditional Verizon Wireless partner Cellco filed, as did Cingular, T-Mobile, Leap Wireless (through Cricket) and Metro PCS. Sprint Nextel filed via its SpectrumCo venture with cable companies in which it holds a 5% stake. Alltel seems to be sitting out the auction.
Major players from recent auctions were absent, such as Cingular partner Edge Mobile, Sprint partner Wirefree Partners III and T-Mobile partner Cook Inlet. More will be revealed in coming days as the FCC releases more on bidder identities.
“I didn’t see a lot of surprises. But it’s hard to know who a lot of these people are,” a wireless industry source said: “There are a lot of small carriers and well known participants in the auction.”
“It’s encouraging that the small guys are getting in and looking to grab some spectrum,” Ken Johnson, an attorney for the Rural Telecom Group, said: “Hopefully they can compete with the larger guys. At least on paper the FCC’s policy gets smaller players in. At this juncture, it looks encouraging.” - Howard Buskirk