WASHINGTON (AP)--A partnership that includes the United States' top two satellite television providers emerged as the leading bidder at the close of the first day of a major auction of public airwaves.
Wireless DBS, comprising EchoStar Communications and the DirecTV Group, was the top bidder Wednesday, offering $282.5 million for 13 licenses.
After the first day, net bids in the auction totaled $897.8 million, according to the Federal Communications Commission, which is running the auction. The Congressional Budget Office expects the sale ultimately to raise $10 billion to $15 billion.
The FCC said in a statement that the auction will "lead to the deployment of new services and wireless broadband for consumers."
The top bids are provisional; if the auction were to end today, they would be the highest. The auction will continue until no more bids are submitted, however, which means it could last several weeks.
The satellite television companies outdistanced T-Mobile USA, the most active bidder in the morning round. The subsidiary of the German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom ended the day with top bids totaling $121.7 million on 23 licenses. The third leading bidder was SpectrumCo, a consortium of the nation's largest cable television providers. The group bid $106.9 million on four licenses.
Bidders are competing for rights to use portions of the radio spectrum - a publicly owned, extremely valuable highway in the sky that allows sound, data and pictures to be transmitted from one place to another.
The sale has 1,122 licenses on offer, the largest offering of mobile wireless spectrum to date.
The auction is the most high profile since late 2000 and early 2001, when a spectrum sale attracted $16.9 billion in bids.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires"
Posted to the site on 10th August 2006
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/18761.php