There was a brief, tense pause in the bidding this morning, but some anonymous giant telecom company (Google, perhaps?) has just pushed the price of the 700MHz C-block over the FCC's reserve price of $4.6B -- and the rest of us straight into the promised land of open access. Yep, January 31, 2008, Round 17 will be the day to remember -- to think it was all a dream, we used to read Free Spectrum magazine.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Here's some up to date 700MHz bidding news for you. Currently, bids on the hotly contested "C" block have risen to almost $4.3 billion, or just a few dollars away from the FCC's reserve price of $4.6 billion. That number puts us perilously close to triggering the "open-access rule" which pretty much everyone (Google especially) has been clamoring for (or fighting). The total bids on the spectrum are also hovering near the $10 billion mark, which has been the FCC's goal all along, ostensibly demonstrating that everything is going according to plan. There is one small snag, with the "D" block -- the public safety / first responder band -- not seeing the kind of action the agency had hoped for, nabbing only $472 million in bids, a far cry from the minimum requirement of $1.6 billion. Of course, bidding has six weeks to go, so no one seems to be sweating just yet, though "lawmakers" are swearing they'll take "quick action" if the numbers don't rise.

[Thanks, Aaron]

Read -- 700Mhz Auction Approaches $10 Billion
Read -- House Panel Bird-Dogging 700MHz Auction

We're sure you've heard most of the notables by now -- such as Google (applying as Google Airwaves Inc.), Verizon, Qualcomm, Cox, Frontline, AT&T, EchoStar and Paul Allen -- but there are a total of 1,099 various licenses available for the 62 megahertz up for grabs, and a whole lot of regional carriers are in the mix. FCC finally has a full list for your perusal, and the final tally reached 266, though a fair number of those might not make it to the actual auction. Apparently two thirds of applications were deemed "incomplete," meaning they have until January 4th to revise their application and put in their upfront payment. Notables on the list of incompletes include AT&T, Cox and Qualcomm. The full list of applicants is after the break.

Feel free to shout it out in the comments, we know y'all are gunning for a piece. What's that? Don't quite have enough change in the couch to hit the $4.6 billion minimum bid on the 700MHz C block? How lame. Lucky for us, there are quite a few companies out there that do have that kind of cash earmarked for this and other highly desirable parts of the spectrum, which should make for some exciting bidding. Too bad FCC's auction process, which begins on January 24th, is totally blind, and with the exception of the few companies that have publicly stated their intentions to bid, we won't know much about how the auction went down until February or March. The following, however, are confirmed:

• AT&T; T-Mobile says it already has plenty.
• Cox Communications; Time Warner and Comcast aren't biting.
• Frontline; gunning for the D block.
• Google; might just do the minimum to ensure the C block is "open."
• Verizon; Sprint is busy with WiMAX.

Sounds like slim pickings, but there a bunch of wild cards out there, including satellite providers, smaller wireless carriers and even big box retailers.

[Via paidContent.org]

Looks like being partners in a company called "SpectrumCo" just isn't what it seems -- although Comcast and Time Warner Communications have already dropped out of the 700MHz auction running, upstart Cox Communications has announced that it's ready to bid at least the $4.6B minimum in January's auction to try and get a little piece of the pie. Cox says it's trying to bundle all its products together, and that the airwaves will allow for greater mobility and convergence -- or, put more simply, "We like having options." Of course, it's got to muscle out all the other players first, but at this point it certainly seems like anything could happen.

In what is surely a sign that the mania around the upcoming 700MHz auction is reaching absurd levels, cable operators Comcast and Time Warner Communications both issued press releases today confirming that they would not be bidding in January's auction. You might recall that both Time Warner (which is owned by Engadget's parent company's parent company) and Comcast are part of SpectrumCo, which snapped up 137 licenses covering 20MHz of spectrum the last time the FCC put airwaves on the block, so there was some speculation that the venture might ante up again this go 'round -- especially since TWC CEO Glenn Britt was running around making vague proclamations about it. Still, it looks like Sprint's exit from the alliance was enough to shelve any such plans, so it looks like the big players are still Google and Verizon. Good thing too -- with this much hype over Good vs. Evil, the racket over Good vs. Evil vs. More Evil vs. Frustratingly Incompetent would be deafening.

With the stage primed for a heavyweight fight between Verizon and Google in January's 700MHz wireless auction, there's some chatter today that Google might actually be bluffing. Bloomberg is reporting that some analysts think that Google has been simply making a lot of noise so that the FCC would enact those controversial open-access rules, but that it doesn't intend to place bids beyond the $4.6B minimum. That strategy would mean that El Goog would get an open network upon which to play, but not have to pony up for the actual towers and infrastructure. Of course, this flies in the face of nearly everything else we've heard to date, like Google pronouncing that it's putting "money where our principles are," and possibly even building a secret test network on its campus, but it's not necessarily unthinkable -- with carrier partners in the OHA and Verizon's surprising decision to open its cell network, it certainly seems like Google's getting pretty good at manipulating airwave politics.

Worried that Verizon's complaints about the open-access rules in the upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction would shake things up in a negative way? As of now, your anxiety is apparently unfounded. According to The New York Times, Verizon Wireless has "abandoned its legal challenge of the Federal Communications Commission's rules for its auction of radio spectrum, removing a potential obstacle to the much-anticipated sale." Interestingly, there's not a lot of backstory as to why the carrier suddenly decided that pressing on wasn't in its best interests, but we'll accept the white flag, regardless.

[Via ZDNet]

Back in August, it seemed pretty certain that the 700MHz spectrum auction would go down on January 16th of next year. Now, however, the FCC has officially delayed the auction by eight days to "provide interested parties with additional time after this announcement of competitive bidding procedures to develop business plans, assess market conditions and evaluate the availability of equipment for new 700MHz band services." Reportedly, the aforementioned parties only have from November 19th to December 3rd to fill out a short-form license application, and if all goes as planned, a "mock auction" should commence on January 18th, 2008. If you'd like to get into all the reserve prices, upfront payment deadlines and top secret details about the hors d'oeuvres that will likely be served at the forthcoming event, feel free to hit the read link for all 122 mind-numbing pages. [Warning: PDF read link]

[Via PhoneScoop]

Talk about gettin' riled up. Verizon Wireless has reportedly "challenged in federal appeals court the FCC's 700 MHz open-access rules," claiming that the auction "violates the US Constitution, violates the Administrative Procedures Act, and is arbitrary, capricious, unsupported by the substantial evidence and otherwise contrary to law." Once you're done swallowing that mouthful, it'll likely be difficult to resist rolling your eyes, as it's pretty clear whose interests are being looked after in the suit. Nevertheless, neither Verizon Wireless nor an FCC spokesman would comment further on the filing, but needless to say, at least one carrier isn't exactly kosher with that succulent 22MHz block of spectrum being so open.

We know, the 700MHz soap opera is wearing a bit on us too, but just in case you were worried that the latest FCC shakeups would deter Google from coughing up $4.6+ billion when the time was right, fret not. Reportedly, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt "told a conference of regulatory and industry leaders in Aspen that his company would 'probably' move ahead with plans to bid for wireless spectrum freed up once broadcast television networks switch to digital from analog in 2009." When asked by T-Mobile USA's government relations chief Thomas Sugrue "whether Google planned to take part in the auctions for wireless broadband networks," the exec simply stated that placing a bid or two would likely be "the way to answer that." So, there you have it -- until next episode...

Just in case you had any suspicion that Google may retract its interest in bidding for the 700MHz spectrum after the rules neglected to afford the winner wholesaling rights, Chris Sacca has intervened to clear things up. According to the search giant's head of special initiatives, the firm is "still very interested in the auction" despite not getting all of the rules for the spectrum sale set in its favor. Of course, the FCC did choose to approve the whole "open access" bit, and while Mr. Sacca declined to elaborate in order to keep details of Google's strategy on the DL, it seems safe to say that it will indeed be busting out the checkbook come auction time.

As the historic federal auction for wireless spectrum heats up and the proverbial wheat begins separating from the chaff, the first major victim of the escalating bidding war seems to be the satellite TV consortium composed of DirecTV and DISH-parent EchoStar. Combining their resources in the Advanced Wireless Services auction as a limited liability corporation known as Wireless DBS, the two companies were hoping to pick up a chunk of spectrum that they could use to offer WiMax broadband services to customers and compete directly with telcos offering so-called "triple-play" packages; currently, the two sat TV providers have only been able to offer Internet service through partnerships with established broadband carriers. Apparently the billion dollars that Wireless DBS was willing to spend ended up not being enough to cover the requisite regional licenses they would need to offer nationwide service, as the cost for such such complete coverage is now anticipated to be at least $4 billion. The next move for the satellite providers could involve either partnering up once again with a company like Clearwire, or waiting until next year to bid in the 700MHz auction -- but that auction could see even higher bids, and the resulting spectrum would be unavailable for use until 2009. Sorry guys, we know how badly you wanted this one, but when you come to a gun fight equipped with nothing but a pocketknife, well, things are bound to end pretty poorly.

[Via Techdirt]

Nature abhors a vacuum, so now that the AMD/ATI deal has gone from rumor to reality, we're in dire need of another potential mega-merger to fill the void. Luckily for us, News Corp. owner and the real "king of all media" Rupert Murdoch recently made some tantalizing comments on the Charlie Rose Show that may indicate DirecTV's renewed interest in merging with Dish Network parent EchoStar. Although he obviously didn't come right out and say that the two companies were involved in talks of any sort, Murdoch did suggest that the television landscape has shifted enough since the last merger attempt in 2002 that "it would be much harder for the government to turn it down" this time around. However, he also cautioned that a deal would be difficult if EchoStar CEO Charlie Ergen -- whose clashes with News Corp. execs reportedly put the kibosh on merger talks all the way back in 1997 -- insisted on running the new entity as one of EchoStar's conditions. Ars Technica sums up the situation nicely by suggesting that although a merger would help both companies in their quest to offer broadband service should they succeed in picking up some spectrum at next month's FCC auction, government regulators would be unlikely to approve such a deal for the same reason as last time: there are still too many consumers out there whose only option is satellite TV, giving a combined DirecTV-Dish entity monopoly status in certain areas of the country. Long story short: there's an excellent chance that Murdoch would love a deal to go down, but chances are it ain't gonna happen.

[Via Ars Technica]