700 Mhz Auction Continues its Record Run

The 700 Mhz auction continues to impress, with a record $19.2 billion bid for 1089 provisional winning bids. Round 52 is scheduled to begin Monday morning, and continue throughout the day with six scheduled rounds. Although bidding on the nationwide “open-access” C block has slowed down, there has been much speculation that the Verizon and Google are the bidders in play. Many are speculating that Verizon has abandoned the nationwide C block bid, and is instead trying to trump Google by concentrating their efforts on the regional C block licenses. If the regional C block licenses garner more dollars than the national C block version, the regionals win. If Verizon wins the C block contest through this regional approach, many believe they will drag their feet on the “open access” provision, much to Google’s chagrin. While the action has slowed down in the A, B, and E blocks, there still continues to be interest in certain regions.