700MHz hopeful Frontline "closed for business"

by Paul Miller posted Jan 9th 2008 at 5:20AM

There's a bit of a mystery emerging on the 700MHz auction front. Frontline Wireless, which has made no secret of its desire to bid and win on the D-block spectrum, has a released a statement saying "Frontline is closed for business at this time. We have no further comment." At the risk of stating the obvious, we'd say that it's a rather inconvenient time for the company to be "closed for business," and this could spell doom for the company's efforts in the 700MHz auction -- or not, there's really no way to tell at this point, and Frontline's industry connections run deep, including a sketchy sounding partnership with "Backline." In time all will be made clear, but for now we've got to wait out this silent auction with everybody else, which may or may not include Frontline Wireless.

Update: Both GigaOm and the New York Times are reporting that apparently Frontline Wireless was unable to raise the deposit required to participate in the auctions. What boggles is that the $128 million required up front is a pittance compared to the money spent in the actual bidding process. While it's sad to see that Frontline has lost the keys to "unlocking the value in 700 MHz" we're stoked for the fun to get started.