FCC releases 700MHz auction details, Verizon, AT&T big winners

Other winners include Qualcomm, which won bits and pieces of the B and E Blocks -- more MediaFLO spectrum, perhaps? -- and Frontier Wireless, scoring the overwhelming majority of the low-bandwidth E Block. Frontier is in cahoots with Echostar, though it's not clear how (or if) the new spectrum would augment its satellite TV service.
Left out in the cold was the D Block, a wireless range which the FCC had required to be used in partnership with public safety groups; it failed to meet its minimum reserve price of $1.33 billion, which means that a new Auction 76 will be automatically spawned for bidders to have another go at it. Follow the break for the big winners, broken down by block.
| Block | Big winner | Total spent (approximate, across all blocks) |
|---|---|---|
| A |
No clear winner | |
| B |
AT&T | $6,636,658,000 |
| C |
Verizon Wireless | $9,363,160,000 |
| D |
Qualcomm | $472,042,000 (did not meet reserve) |
| E |
Frontier Wireless | $711,871,000 |



















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Bobby @ Mar 20th 2008 3:12PM
WHY GOOGLE WHY
Jonathan Keim @ Mar 20th 2008 3:15PM
Dang it, I wanted to be the 'first' to post a comment on this historical event :-)
Not that it really matters of course -__-
Ghen @ Mar 20th 2008 5:03PM
WHY JONATHAN WHY
You should have kept your mouth shut and let us suspect your idiocy instead of opening it and letting us know definitively. Being the 'first post' isn't something that should be celebrated as it only perpetuates a crappy meme based on vanity. Its a deadly sin you know?
Leo @ Mar 20th 2008 5:58PM
Also, it was once funny to say "First!" ironically but I tried that and forgot the freaking sarcasm tags and got hella abuse for it.... It's not even funny WITH sarcasm tags now...
CB17 @ Mar 20th 2008 6:58PM
Anybody wonder what woulda happened had Verizon let Google win the spectrum? All the sudden in Google HQ: "OH SH**!!!!! We weren't SERIOUS! NOW what do we do??"
Chris Macdonald @ Mar 21st 2008 1:14PM
the death star has paid the government for our air....
mark @ Mar 20th 2008 3:16PM
AT&T?!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Ray @ Mar 20th 2008 3:18PM
My words Exactly.
Now lets make a comment wave, finish this phrase:
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO--
andres @ Mar 20th 2008 3:38PM
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-
Tim @ Mar 20th 2008 3:46PM
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Ethan @ Mar 20th 2008 4:05PM
oooooooooooooooooooon sequitur.
Dave @ Mar 20th 2008 4:10PM
C-C-C-C-Combo breaker!
Ender Wiggin @ Mar 20th 2008 4:31PM
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-
WiiFTW @ Mar 20th 2008 5:23PM
Snake? Snake! SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!!!!!!!
MBS @ Mar 20th 2008 5:35PM
STELLA!!!
ark_v2 @ Mar 20th 2008 5:39PM
Stop taking those muscle relaxants...they're bad for you. BTW, + 1
riggs @ Mar 20th 2008 9:44PM
yes they deserve to die, and i hope they burn in hell!
Big Sam @ Mar 21st 2008 9:58AM
SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
The Lord Dragon @ Mar 20th 2008 3:19PM
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thebanman @ Mar 20th 2008 4:23PM
PON
alex @ Mar 20th 2008 3:19PM
Does this mean more signal for users?
Eric @ Mar 20th 2008 3:20PM
Great....well *hopefully* Verizon won't be evil about it...I know slim chance.
Sad.
Nicky-Larson @ Mar 20th 2008 3:20PM
OH MY F***KING GOD! Cellphone bills just got more expensive, and Americans just doomed the more. I thought this was going to give a chance for some company to free the Americans and make them more like the rest of developed world ( Cellphone communications whise), but no, that change will never come, with the 2 main BULLIES still there. Well here goes Monopoly. More money out of wallets, anyone???
Dave @ Mar 20th 2008 5:04PM
youre an idiot...my cell phone bill (and handsets) here in the US are considerably cheaper than in the EU. So as the Britsh say, piss off!
mark @ Mar 20th 2008 3:23PM
AT&T history
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtFtcp4mNzA
Zach @ Mar 20th 2008 5:14PM
i'm not clicking for fear of being rick rolled once more.
CraigJ @ Mar 20th 2008 5:24PM
click this one. no, really, trust me... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uZr3JWYdy8
Zach @ Mar 20th 2008 7:07PM
goodness. please no more rickrollings :(
DP @ Mar 21st 2008 4:11AM
Yup, I remember my first time.
Monty @ Mar 20th 2008 3:26PM
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!
jimmy @ Mar 20th 2008 3:26PM
surprised? not really. the big dogs have the most to lose if someone else won.
the good news is that we can pay for another few years of an iraqi war! woot!
mark @ Mar 20th 2008 3:29PM
they just estimated that the iraq war could cost up to 4 trillion.
my god ..
jimmy @ Mar 20th 2008 3:57PM
i'm as liberal as the next guy, but we're (allegedly) at $500b right now
http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home
so $4t seems a little inflated.
anywhooo
G Kabik @ Mar 20th 2008 4:38PM
The $4 trillion figure includes more than current "expenditures", it includes forecasted expenditures (it's going to cost another 500 billion at least to replace the men and equipment lost to the war at this point) and increased cost of living (energy, food, etc) that has resulted from the war. The number comes from Joseph Stiglitz, who has a nobel prize in Economics, so while one can quibble with exact figures I think you'd be hard pressed to say a guy like that is way off.
Dave @ Mar 20th 2008 5:13PM
Yes, but unfortunately you can't measure the impact of the BRIC countries and emerging markets that are really to blame for the increasing prices in oil and other commodities. Using the war as a basis for the increase in costs and the inflating dollar, not to mention the government's recent bailout of Bear Stearns and investment banks overextending themselves in collaterialized debt obligations is just flawed. You know, Jimmy Carter has a Nobel Prize too...
Magamus @ Mar 20th 2008 7:25PM
Not to gloat in corrections, but the government did NOT bail out Bear Stearns. The Fed did. And the Fed is a PRIVATE bank, that America BORROWS from at whatever rate they set. America does not own nor hae any type of control over the Federal Reserve.
asdfasdf @ Mar 20th 2008 8:19PM
The people who run the Federal reserve are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
Joseph @ Mar 21st 2008 8:45AM
@asdfasdf:
It's not so much the people who run the Fed that are the problem as it is the Federal Reserve itself. And stating the fact that they're appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate isn't exactly the best argument here (do you know who the current US President is?)The Fed not only makes its own rules and regulations but is a system where our currency is backed by nothing. (It's value determined by the amount in circulation) They practice something called Fractional Banking and are making a crazy amount of profit off interest. Why do you think we go to war? (War=More Printing and Loaning to our Gov.=$$$$$$ in interest to the Fed) It is ultimately unconstitutional and downright debauched. kthx
web2.oh @ Mar 20th 2008 3:27PM
I just want to take this time to say that anyone, absolutely ANYONE who thought Google would end up with any piece of this spectrum is a goddamn idiot.
But hey, let's hear it for an open network! Hope something interesting comes out of this.
primetime4 @ Mar 20th 2008 3:32PM
I think the real winner here is ebay. That ending value fee must be through the roof.
CraigJ @ Mar 20th 2008 5:29PM
AAA+++!!!!! GREAT SELLER!!! WOULD BUY FROM AGAIN!!!!
dizilbdog @ Mar 20th 2008 3:34PM
This sucks so much for "Open" networks yada yada... Verizon still sucks and always will. Google could have brought Wimax, but no crappy Corporate Verizon wants to rule it all.. I'm just gonna switch to Tin Can's...
john @ Mar 20th 2008 5:09PM
This spectrum was already used for some pretty cool things...like wireless microphones...any place that had or used wireless microphone that were more than a year old are now out of luck! Now people have to spend money that they didn't need to in order to keep functioning wireless equipment. So a great big fu to the fcc for selling what wasn't there's to sell, these frequencies were always intended for public usage, hey maybe the govt. will start selling us the air we breathe too wouldn't that be great as long as we can pay for wifi and cell phones too. Most of you people don't get that it is the public who was robbed and then the stolen property sold right in front of us and you're excited???
Samuel A. Falvo II @ Mar 20th 2008 7:05PM
@john,
I love how folks complain about how this spectrum was somehow stolen out from the public. The public-at-large can't even read beyond an 8th grade level, so how the heck are they going to benefit from the 700MHz spectrum? What would "the public" do with it? Nothing, that's what. Unless you give it to the amateur radio community, in which case, it'd have been used only for old farts to complain to each other about their health problems and how the digital modes have no place in amateur radio (thus effectively killing the hobby in the process). The public needs someone to build equipment that is compatible with it, and to dumb down the interface to a sub-8th-grade level so that the public can grok how to use the phones. That's what these telcos are all about. The public, in no way, benefits from 700MHz, any more than they benefit from 7MHz, or 70MHz. They never did, they never will. Really, they don't give a rat's @$$.
Nirmal @ Mar 20th 2008 3:35PM
What exactly does this all mean?
Besides the man's plan to take over the world and screwing us consumers.
No seriously, what exactly is the 700Mhz going to do for us?
decypher44 @ Mar 20th 2008 3:44PM
I'll second your question. I feel somewhat stupid that I have no frakking clue what this all means.
Richard @ Mar 20th 2008 3:47PM
I read somewhere that the 700 mhz signal can penetrate buildins to a certain degree. So, if you weren't able to get a signal in your office or basement before, you will now. This'll definitely be a perk for me since I don't even get a signal in my house :(
Other than that.. beats me. All I know is that Asia still has better phones.
Killer @ Mar 20th 2008 4:04PM
To answer your question its part of the oringal Analog tv signal. It can go through pretty much anything. So verizon/At&T (if they wanted too) can make them giant Wifi allowing almost 99% of the the United States to have High Speed internet like 10mb/s downloading. I suspect they will do that and Verizon will probally use the C Block for their VCAST TV. It opens up alot of possibilities for many things. I Don't care who won what. I'm just glad that it has been sold and will finally be used for some pretty cool things.
G Kabik @ Mar 20th 2008 4:42PM
So now that brings the question - is this one of the factors that compelled the FCC to force the digitization of TV signals? Are they trying to free up the frequencies so we can have national wifi?
Killer @ Mar 20th 2008 5:43PM
@G Kabik
It's a little of both and alot of other reasons as well. Alot of the other Blocks of the 700MHz weren't sold, because the Goverment is going to use them for emergency frequencies and goverment data. Another reason is that HD is getting to the small point of Mainstream, so the goverment wanted to put everything on Digital. In general, no matter the reason, It's pretty much a great thing for everyone. Verizon, AT&T, consumer, etc. It opens up alot of possibilities. Like Cell Service anywhere and Internet everywhere. This is a very nice step for the entire country.