Yes I agree this is a very nice and clever picture regarding this issue, although maybe you want to alternate between this and another one, maybe on of a laptop with waves coming out of it to you know, just mix it up a little bit?
@Paris: No no. The minimum bid for the spectrum to be "open-access" - usable by any company for a fee (like how Verizon has to lease other phone companies its lines) is $4.7 Bln: that is the total minimum bid set by the gov't for the C and D blocks of the 700Mhz (C and D are the only blocks used for two way communication - very valuable).
Technically you could get the C and D blocks for less than the minimum bid and have closed-access, but that won't happen. The bid is already up to $2.78 Bln since this blog entry was written, and is expected to reach nearly $10 Bln, so I don't think there are any worries that the C and D blocks will be closed-access.
Actually, the auction did NOT go up any since this post was made. Read the article again, there has been about 2.78 bln dollars in TOTAL bids for all the blocks, which includes 1.24 bln for the C block alone. Also, the money made from ALL the blocks is expected to reach 10 bln, not the C block.
We could very well end up with closed-access, thats why Engadget is following it so closely...
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Yes I agree this is a very nice and clever picture regarding this issue, although maybe you want to alternate between this and another one, maybe on of a laptop with waves coming out of it to you know, just mix it up a little bit?
Please God, don't let AT&T win this.
I don't get it. We all know that the minimum bet is $4.6b and yet someone thought to bid $1.24b ? What did the bidder think?
@ Paris,
All the info is in the short blog. $4.6B is needed to trigger the "open-access" rule.
Moving on...
I think Google has this, despite having the deepest pockets, they also have the most to gain from open-access.
@Paris: No no. The minimum bid for the spectrum to be "open-access" - usable by any company for a fee (like how Verizon has to lease other phone companies its lines) is $4.7 Bln: that is the total minimum bid set by the gov't for the C and D blocks of the 700Mhz (C and D are the only blocks used for two way communication - very valuable).
Technically you could get the C and D blocks for less than the minimum bid and have closed-access, but that won't happen. The bid is already up to $2.78 Bln since this blog entry was written, and is expected to reach nearly $10 Bln, so I don't think there are any worries that the C and D blocks will be closed-access.
RTFA ;)
@Mike
Actually, the auction did NOT go up any since this post was made. Read the article again, there has been about 2.78 bln dollars in TOTAL bids for all the blocks, which includes 1.24 bln for the C block alone. Also, the money made from ALL the blocks is expected to reach 10 bln, not the C block.
We could very well end up with closed-access, thats why Engadget is following it so closely...
If I'm looking at the right thing on the FCC website, the "C" block looks liek it's almost at $1.8 Billion.
http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/default.htm?job=auction_summary&id=73
and click view auction results then sort by PWB Amount.
That's the right auction, correct?
JDizzle,
Yes, that's the one. Using that link, click "view auction results" and then watch the "Package 50 States"... that's the C Block.
Thomas