UPDATE, June 30: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced the winners of its recent AWS-3 spectrum auction, with winning bids of more than $3.5 billion (see original story below).
Verizon was the largest winner by dollar amount, with more than $3 billion in bids. T-Mobile purchased 102 licenses, more than the other auction winners. AT&T and SpaceX also purchased spectrum in multiple markets.
The FCC auction offered 200 spectrum licenses in the 1695-1710 MHz, 1755-1780 MHz and 2155-2180 MHz bands.
The complete list of FCC spectrum auction winners, listed alphabetically:
- AT&T: $120,774,000 for 10 licenses in 10 markets
- Blue Ridge Wireless II LLC: $2,090,000 for one license in one market
- Verizon Wireless (Cellco Partnership): $3,162,445,000 for 82 licenses in 82 markets
- Citizens Band License Company, LLC: $75,000 for one license in one market
- Conundrum Wireless, LLC: $1,228,000 for two licenses in one market
- SpaceX: $8,490,200 for two licenses in two markets
- T-Mobile: $277,787,000 for 102 licenses in 102 markets
Original story follows: June 25
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says that the recently closed AWS-3 spectrum auction finished with gross winning bids of more than $3.5 billion.
The auction, formally Auction 113, began on June 2. The FCC announced earlier this week that the auction was over after running for 72 rounds and producing 17 qualified bidders.
In all, the auction offered 200 spectrum licenses in the 1695-1710 MHz, 1755-1780 MHz and 2155-2180 MHz bands. The spectrum had been won in auction 97 in 2014, but the winners had defaulted or the bids were withdrawn. The spectrum had been held in the FCC’s inventory.
The FCC said that the auction was the first time that an undated application system was used.
The press release said the FCC is on schedule to meet the July 2027 deadline set by Congress to complete a system for competitive bidding of 100 MHz or more spectrum.
The FCC said that as much as $3.3 billion of the proceeds from the AWS-3 auction will cover monies borrowed to support the FCC’s rip and replace program and other programs run by the Commerce Department.
In February 2025, the FCC unanimously approved a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) creating the AWS-3 spectrum auction. The goal was to reimburse providers with 10 million or fewer subscribers who took part in the “rip and replace” program that was instituted when equipment from Huawei and ZTE was found to pose security risks and had to be removed.
