FCC releases 700MHz auction details, Verizon, AT&T big winners
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Mar 20th 2008 3:08PM
posted Mar 20th 2008 3:08PM
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 |
WHY GOOGLE WHY
Dang it, I wanted to be the 'first' to post a comment on this historical event :-)
Not that it really matters of course -__-
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?
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...
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??"
the death star has paid the government for our air....
AT&T?!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
My words Exactly.
Now lets make a comment wave, finish this phrase:
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO--
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooon sequitur.
C-C-C-C-Combo breaker!
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-
Snake? Snake! SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!!!!!!!
STELLA!!!
Stop taking those muscle relaxants...they're bad for you. BTW, + 1
yes they deserve to die, and i hope they burn in hell!
SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Does this mean more signal for users?
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PON
Great....well *hopefully* Verizon won't be evil about it...I know slim chance.
Sad.
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???
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!
AT&T history
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtFtcp4mNzA
i'm not clicking for fear of being rick rolled once more.
click this one. no, really, trust me... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uZr3JWYdy8
goodness. please no more rickrollings :(
Yup, I remember my first time.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!
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!
they just estimated that the iraq war could cost up to 4 trillion.
my god ..
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
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.
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...
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.
The people who run the Federal reserve are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
@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
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.
I think the real winner here is ebay. That ending value fee must be through the roof.
AAA+++!!!!! GREAT SELLER!!! WOULD BUY FROM AGAIN!!!!
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...
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???
@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 @$$.
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?
I'll second your question. I feel somewhat stupid that I have no frakking clue what this all means.
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.
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.
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?
@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.
@ Killer
Um, no. Not a possiblity that they can create a giant WiFi network covering 99% of the US at 10Mbps. I HATE when people do this on the internet. There's enough stupidity out there already. 700Mhz isn't even ideal for data transmission. Leave that to the Ghz bands.
Look - the 700Mhz block is valuable for two important reasons:
1) Signal penetration, which has been discussed, which is also related to coverage area. The 700Mhz band allows for a wider coverage area per tower, though there's an incremental investment for carriers as it doesn't allow for a higher efficiency (i.e. fewer Mhz per channel), just a longer range. Think about how ubiquitous broadcast TV is.
2) The huge, geographically contiguous blocks of spectrum are also important. Having a nationwide wireless network makes no sense if you need sextuple-band handsets.
Ummmm...Econ.
I think you need to go back to physics. 700MHz is a wavelength. Not a data determinate. Based on the frequency table. Also please, oh please tell me why and how, if 700MHz is so powerless, did they push all that video content through it? Also why do the experts have the same idea, in which I said. I guess Microsoft, Intel, Google, AT&T, Verizon, etc, just don't know what they are talking about. Maybe you should HATE yourself for saying stupid things that "There's enough stupidity out there already."
FCC has left feedback for Verizon: Deadbeat bidder, bid up my auction to 4.7B...would not reply to e-mails.
You know they're just going to sit on that spectrum and let it stagnate for a decade or two. Just because they don't want you to use a competitor's phone on their network. It's cool that Google forced open access, but it would have been even cooler if they had gone all the way.
BTW w3rd. I'm totally switching to tin cans. Painted ones even. But then they'd start licensing sound waves. yeah you're right no matter what I do they'd find a way to stick a straw in my wallet.
Three cheers for bigger straws, oppression, and "the man".
They aren't allowed to let it stagnate. There are stipulations that allow the FCC to reclaim unused portions of the spectrum if the buyers don't meet deadlines.
Google how could you let such an evil company take over??!?!?!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Because not all corporations care only about their stockholders, amirite?
I had to vote you down for screwing up my screen display.
@ primetime4
How was I "Screwing up" your display???
Sounds like your screen was already screwed...
I had to vote you down because your comment was stupid.
Okay, random..but.. in the list of bidders, there's a "Jack E Robinson" Was the bidding list open to the public? I'm assuming this was a serious bidding war and fake names couldn't be used..?
And how much of this money could be better spent helping those in need. America disgusts me, im glad im british.
Maybe a 4 would serve your username better. I'm also rather glad to be English and a European, at least during the Bush era, but you have to realize we did exactly the same thing with the rights to 3G a while back.
And, hey, maybe the government will use the money well?
Well, the money is going to the US Government, and we all know that they will use it in a responsible and caring mann----oh never mind.
Right, because the information revolution has had no positive impact on the developing world at all.
You know what helps those in need? Giving them a chance to join the rest of the world by expanding information access. You know what they don't need? More bureaucrats handing out supplies to governments run by despots. America may be far from perfect, but you're not in the best position to throw stones, friend. At least unlike the British (and the entire EU) we don't put tariffs on imported African farm goods, ensuring their continued poverty and vulnerability to the tyranny of warlords in order to appease our own farming lobby. If your country is so concerned about those in need, why not let them work for a living instead of regulate your industries into oblivion under the pretense that your own countrymen deserve the jobs more than a starving citizen of a foreign country?
Britain disgusts me, how could you let your government mirror 1984 AND Brave New World?
I think I speak for most Americans when I say that I'm glad you're a Brit as well. Now piss off.
Too bad, I was really looking forward to an open-minded company getting a spot in the spectrum. Maybe Verizon will surprise me, but I won't hold my breath.
All I can say is thank god. I don't care who got what. I just want better internet then what I have to choose from in the country. Dial-up Or DirectWay...Broadband would be nice now, get on it Verizon. Even if its $70 a month I'll pay for it, after all I'm already doing it with DirectWay. >:/
Are we all paying per pixel for this or will there be a 3 year "open" soul-binding contract? In which we pay for 60 pixels a month for the rest of the time matter still exists in the universe.
The most that's going to come out of this now is at&t or Verizon having more ways to money-rape customers.
My only experience with American phones is when Jack Bauer's phone repeatedly conks out whenever he's about 2 miles out of LA. I understand this might help a bit with our most commonly used and integral gadgets, so good luck with that, despite the evil empire and all.
NO! NO! NO! Oh, no!
Different frequencies have different attributes. The 700mhz spectrum is perfect for long-range internet use because it wouldn't require a lot of power to build an AP AND it can penetrate buildings pretty easily.
Can't stop the signal!
every signal goes somewhere and I go everywhere
Anyone that thinks that the 700 MHz band is special is mistaken. The 700 MHz band is not any different than the 800 MHz band that is already used in cellphones. It has pretty much the same "penetrating" and range performance. The phone companies just have more bandwidth now to make more money.
I'm kinda sick of people complaining of American cellphone companies. Has anyone looked at the rate plans in Canada? Europe in general? Cellphone bills are going up because people are using more stuff. You want to compare the $35 cellphone bills of the early and mid 90s, then start using 250 minutes a month, get off the damn net, and forget what texting is. If you want to use the stuff, then pay for it and be quiet.
However, you aren't taking into account the fact that the number of subscribers has gone up exponentially as well. Think about how many people you knew who owned a cell phone in the early/mid 90's- not many. Now, pretty much everyone has one (over 25% nationally, 60% of teens-so still rising). This means, that they are charging us more, with more subscribers...sure we use more data but common dude. I guess we didn't learn from the Bell/AT&T monopolies of the 70s/80s. Ahh well.
There's more to life than the per minute price of a phone call.
Did you know that you can get a 2 pound can of coffee for
At least be happy that US companies aren't offering "unlimited nationwide calling" plans with a connection fee and then ending the connection every 10 minutes. Europe isn't bad, but let me tell you about Russia..
And yes, as many users have pointed out already, you spend much, much more on simple phone calls and texting (not pre-paid) in Europe and everywhere else.. even without all the bells and whistles. Add GPRS and 3G services to the pot and your bill grows exponentially. Having lived in both Europe and Russia, I sure do appreciate the prices in the US. Everything is relative.. and it might seem that the grass is always greener.. but really, it isn't.
When I am TDY'd, it's much cheaper for me to bring a US cellphone and pay for roaming than to even begin to pay for European service (which, I do admit, Jack Bauer would like).
I wonder if this will be like oil companies buying battery companies and then shutting them down. Verizon buys a great piece of spectrum and thus has the right to do what ever it wants with it, including doing nothing. Is $4 billion too much to keep out competition?
Verizon doesn't have the right to do nothing with it, stipulated in the contract is an agreement to do a nation wide buildout in X amount of time or the FCC begins to reclaim the spectrum for resale.
But doesn't Verizon have to follow the terms and conditions that Google set?
No Verizon has to abide by the terms and conditions of their contractual win as laid out by the FCC under pressure (thank God) from groups advocating open access, like Google, et al. Google didn't, in fact, make any rules for this auction themselves.
Well, please do it right Verizon... I can't wait to see what comes of this. :)
AT&T don't deserve anything, stupid jerks. Verizon is just to damn expensive. Google, why! Why did you not put more into it. You could have saved us from all these other people!
Google never intended on getting any of this
I'm crying right now.
Good to know the 700MHz spectrum will be support across the line of providers.
Irrelevant
For everyone that would have liked Google to have won the C block, I would like to point out that having both your content provider and your content producer be the same company is a very bad thing. This is the whole reason people want strict net neutrality, to keep companies from being able to prioritize certain parts of the net over others. If Google was your search engine and your ISP, think of the kind of power they would have to keep you from using yahoo or Microsoft search tools. I know Google pledges to not be evil but its better to keep them out of a situation in which they can be considered evil.
Where's your source? Are we expected to just believe you?
Actually I do, I just want to know how much Google bid, which you didn't indicate.
http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/default.htm?job=auction_summary&id=73
I found the site, it lists results only by round though so I can't answer my other question (yet).
Looks like their maximum bid was $4,713,823,000 in round 17. (Why does their site have to so painfully force everything to be separated by rounds? Wouldn't be so bad if the site weren't so slow now).
A bit more than $100 million over their promised $4.6 billion dollar bid: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/20070720_wireless.html
I hate verizon... and now they are going to get the lincense for the whole country... this has to blow... att should've step up their game ....
Snake? Snake! SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!!!!!!! *gunshot*
(Sorry, this just sounds waayyy better)
And those rules dictate that only a portion of the spectrum needs to be open-access, not the whole thing.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO*e^50
I would like to hear what the Presidential candidates have to say about this.
(Alright, joke's over. Move along.)