American wireless carriers Verizon Communications, AT&T and T-Mobile US and satellite provider Dish are set to bid for spectrum auction in November.
This indicates that three of the four largest U.S. wireless carriers will submit bid in the Federal Communications Commission’s November auction of airwaves, according to initial applications released on Wednesday.
Last month, SoftBank-owned Sprint, the No. 3 mobile carrier, said that it would not participate in the AWS-3 auction in November to save funds for the potential purchases of spectrum in a major sale of low-frequency airwaves scheduled for next year.
Dish applied to bid in the auction as American AWS-3 Wireless I LLC. Applications from Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless LicenseCo reported they had entered bidding agreements with Dish, which had indirect ownership interest in both companies, Reuters reported.
Rivals T-Mobile and AT&T did not appear to plan joint bids with other companies, and T-Mobile’s Kathleen Ham, vice president of federal regulatory affairs, said the carrier had no such agreements with any company.
80 companies submitted initial applications for buying the airwaves. Interested parties, which may or may not actually bid for wireless licenses in the auction, included smaller U.S. companies such as Bluegrass Wireless, Guam-based wireless company Docomo Pacific and individual spectrum investors.
Of the 80 applications, 47 were deemed incomplete and have to be properly finished by October 15 to allow the companies to participate. All initial applications have to put down an upfront payment by October 15 to confirm participation, according to reports.
The spectrum auction will begin on November 13.
The auction is expected to raise at least $10 billion and will include airwaves previously occupied by multiple federal users, including the Department of Homeland Security.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
