Friday, January 25, 2008

Wireless auction opens with total $2.4 billion bid

Top bidders put up a total of more than $2.4 billion on Thursday in the opening round of the Federal Communications Commission's auction of coveted U.S. government-owned airwaves. CNN reports.

Companies qualified to bid include major carriers AT&T and Verizon Wireless, as well as possible new competitors like Internet company Google, EchoStar Communications, and Cablevision Systems. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group.

"The electronic auction is expected to continue for weeks or even months and will end when no more bids are submitted. The FCC plans to hold multiple rounds of back-and-forth bidding each day on each of five blocks of spectrum available for sale.

A second round on Thursday is scheduled to go from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. PST.
Results from each round are made publicly available on the
FCC's Web site about 10 minutes afterward."

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