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August 31, 2006  |  Email This Article   |  Print This Article

FCC anxious to end AWS Auction

WASHINGTON DC (WiMAX Day). The FCC turned up the pressure on bidders Tuesday to wrap up the AWS auction. The agency increased daily bidding rounds to 6 from 4 and cut each round in half, to 30 minutes. The auction began with 2 rounds each day on 9th August, and the Commission has been slowly adding additional rounds. Total bids stood at $13.6 billion after 57 rounds late Tuesday. T-Mobile remains the top bidder, as it has since the auction’s early days, with 116 provisionally winning bids worth $4.2 billion. Verizon Wireless remains in second position, with provisionally winning bids of $2.8 billion for 4 licenses. Some top licenses continue to change hands. Cingular picked up a 10 MHz license covering the Chicago-Gary-Kenosha region in round 53. T-Mobile picked up a 20 MHz license for Chicago in round 51. The auction, still could last several weeks.