AT&T bidding the most in a mid-band 5G spectrum auction already worth $21+ billion
The FCC's 3.45-3.55GHz spectrum Auction 110 is in full swing, and it seems that the most eager beaver out there is AT&T, as it has a lot of catching up to do in the 5G midband network area.
There are seven more rounds today, but the FCC had already amassed $21.295 billion worth of bidding as of mid-Monday, reports Fierce Wireless, and as the demand tapers analysts aren't expecting much more than $22 billion to exchange hands in the end.
This is a far cry from the C-Band spectrum auction last year when Verizon, AT&T and the rest of the usual suspects bid $81.2 billion but still "this auction is poised to have the longest tail of any auction since the FCC moved to clock auctions," according to Sasha Javid, Bitpath COO and ex legal advisor for the FCC Incentive Auction Task Force.
While some argue that the government should stop bragging with how many billions it earned through spectrum auctions and instead subsidize the nascent 5G network developments to help the US gain a competitive global advantage, but for now US carriers are forced to give Uncle Sam these huge outlays that then have to be recuperated by 5G unlimited plan prices.
While AT&T won about 80-megahertz of the mid-band C spectrum, that is still a far cry T-Mobile's 190 MHz or Verizon's 180 MHz. The FCC auction rules forbid any single player from winning more than 40-megahertz of the 3.45 GHz spectrum, so AT&T will probably try and grab all of the allowance in this current 5G midband Auction 110 action.
DISH is also in the running but, considering it held just 20 MHz prior, it couldn't add much more to its 5G network holdings even if it matches AT&T's bidding.
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