We have a winner, but we don't know who it is.
Bidding on the C block of the wireless spectrum being abandoned by analog TV broadcasters appears to be over. There has been no action in the auction since a $4.71 billion bid for the 700MHz spectrum in round 17 on Thursday.
"The bidding for the C block is likely over," Blair Levin, a former FCC official and an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, told Business Week. Under Federal Communications Commission rules the identity of the winning bidder won't be known until all the auctions finish in a few weeks.
Innovation 'On The Edges'
Because bids for the C block met the reserve price of $4.6 billion, the FCC's open-access rules will require the winner to open the network  to all wireless devices and most applications.
"The openness requirement is important both in terms of the innovation it will lead to on the edges of the network and the ability of consumers to take advantage of that innovation,'' FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters on Thursday.
Most observers believe the two companies involved in the serious bidding were Google and Verizon. Google lobbied hard for the open-access rules and had committed to bidding up to the reserve price.
Google Happy To Lose?
Since Google isn't a network operator and it would cost billions of dollars -- beyond the cost of acquiring the spectrum -- to build out a network, most observers have speculated that Verizon, or possibly another major carrier, made the winning bid. That would be a win-win scenario, with Google getting the open access it wants and Verizon getting a powerful swath of spectrum.
"That's a very plausible theory," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst with Sterling Market Research, in a phone interview. "I don't think Google wants to be operator because of the cost, but it benefits them if consumers have open access to the network. It very much opens the possibilities" for consumers and technologists.
On the other hand, Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Creative Strategies, said in an e-mail, "I don't believe they drove the bid up artificially, as I believe they really want this spectrum so that they can deliver their own type of wireless services. However, in the end, the big winner will be the consumer and it will have a dramatic impact on the current wireless carriers' business models."
Huge new opportunties(continued...)
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