C-band bidding wraps at $80.91BC-band bidding wraps at $80.91B

The clock phase of the FCC's C-band auction for coveted mid-band spectrum for 5G wrapped up Friday with gross proceeds of $80.91 billion, handily beating the $44.89 billion driven by the 2004 auction for AWS-3 spectrum.

The C-band auction, known as Auction 107, centers on licenses for 280MHz of spectrum in the 3.7GHz-3.98GHz band. The FCC billed it as the highest-grossing spectrum auction ever held in the US.

"Bidders have won all of the 5,684 spectrum blocks that were up for bid. And gross proceeds have exceeded $80.9 billion, shattering the prior FCC auction record of $44.9 billion," FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement.

Fifty-seven bidders pursued the licenses in the C-band auction, but the identities of the winners won't be known right away. Winning bidders will now have a chance to bid for frequency-specific licenses in the "assignment phase." The FCC said only that it expects to release a public notice "soon" that reveals details for the assignment phase

LightShed Partners analyst Walter Piecyk tweeted out some of the other numbers associated with the C-band auction:

Verizon is expected to come out as one of the big C-band winners. Other big names that registered to bid in the C-band auction, dubbed Auction 107, includes AT&T, T-Mobile, Charter, Comcast, Cox Communications, Altice USA, Columbia Capital, Dish Network, Viasat and U.S. Cellular.

For those keeping an eye on the cable industry's mobile ambitions and their ongoing exploration of using licensed spectrum to help offset the costs of their largely MVNO-based mobile services, Comcast and Charter purportedly teamed up for the C-band auction under an entity called "C&C Wireless Holding Company." Comcast and Charter have already formed a joint operating platform partnership for mobile services.

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Amid C-band demand, 5G proponents could turn to 6GHz next CableLabs forges agnostic wireless connection for operators Verizon, AT&T, Charter, Cox, Dish among C-band bidders The full list: Here are the actual bidders in the C-band auction Is T-Mobile overcalling Verizon in the C-band auction? Comcast to test mobile, fixed operations in C-band ahead of auction As C-band bidding slows, telco debt expected to skyrocket — Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, <ahref="http://www.lightreading.com">Light Reading