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Verizon and AT&T dominated the US government’s latest spectrum auction, spending a combined $68.9 billion on licenses in the upper 3GHz band.
Verizon’s winning bids totaled $45.45 billion, while AT&T’s came in at $23.41 billion. T-Mobile was third with $9.34 billion as the three biggest wireless carriers accounted for the vast majority of the $81.17 billion in winning bids, the Federal Communications Commission said in results released yesterday. US Cellular, a regional carrier, was a distant fourth in spending, at $1.28 billion, but came in third, ahead of T-Mobile, in the number of licenses won.
The auction distributed 280MHz worth of spectrum in the “C-Band” between 3.7GHz and 3.98GHz. This spectrum will help carriers boost network capacity with mid-band frequencies that cover large geographic areas and penetrate walls more effectively than the higher millimeter-wave frequencies that provide the fastest 5G speeds to very limited geographic areas.
Mid-band spectrum doesn’t match the geographic coverage and obstacle penetration properties of the low-band spectrum below 1GHz, which was used extensively to deploy 4G networks. But there’s more spectrum available in the mid-band than in the low-band. Carriers are using a mix of low-, mid-, and high-band spectrum for 5G.
Licenses are being distributed in 14 blocks of 20MHz each in 406 “partial economic areas” across the US, for a total of 5,684 licenses. Verizon Wireless (referred to as “Cellco Partnership” in the FCC auction) won 3,511 licenses in 406 areas, AT&T won 1,621 licenses in 406 areas, and T-Mobile won 142 licenses in 72 areas.
US Cellular’s $1.28 billion in winning bids accounts for 254 licenses in 99 areas, suggesting that it purchased licenses in parts of the US with lower demand from the big carriers. Overall, 21 bidders won spectrum licenses, which last 15 years.
Winning bidders must make down payments by March 10 and final payments by March 24, with the money going into the US Treasury.
