TECHNOLOGY TIPS - FCC AUCTION WINNERS AND IMPACTS
On March 19, the FCC closed Auction 73. So what does that mean to you and me?
Well, the 2 biggies in Chicago - Verizon and AT&T - now will have open access. With the digital wave of TV, the FCC opened up their soon to be unused 700 MHz air waves.
Verizon won Block C (after a slight fight with Google) except for Alaska, Puerto Rico and the Gulf of Mexico. AT&T won B Block, giving it 12 MHz of spectrum in over 700 "cellular market areas" nationwide. Verizon's win cost a little over $4.7 billion and affirms rumors that Mountain View was in it to make sure the minimum bid was met.
D Block did not meet its requirement and so Auction 76 is slated to happen in the near future.
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