The Action-Packed Bonus Round is next up at the FCC’s 700MHz auction, notes the NY Times.
The FCC has moved to push the auction forward and possibly speed up bidding. It announced that as of Wednesday morning, the auction would enter what it calls Phase 2. That means that in order to stay active in the auction, companies will need to be more active in their bidding.
There are complex rules that govern how much “eligibility” companies have to bid. And in Phase 2, they must use 95 percent of their eligibility in each round, compared to 80 percent in Phase 1. That means that if someone has been bidding on one set of frequencies, hoping to scoop up what they really wanted at the last minute, Wednesday may be the day to make a move.
At the same time, the commission reduced the minimum amount needed to raise a bid from 5 percent of the previous level to 2 percent, allowing for a more active final stage of bidding.
The auction on all 1,099 licenses will continue until there are no more bids on any of them.
Yesterday, the C Block dominated the action when new high potential winning bids were placed on the eight individual C-Block licenses covering the 50 states. The new high bids broke up the package of eight C-Block licenses, which had been the most popular configuration of the C Block since the start of the auction.
Under FCC rules, if bids on the “C Block” regional licenses are higher than bids on the nation-wide package, the spectrum will be sold separately.
The auction stood at $18.9 billion yesterday, after round 35.
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