Comment (0)The FCC's first big midband spectrum auction, Auction 105 for 3.5GHz CBRS licenses, ended last week – and now it's time to sift through the results.
The auction raised a total of $4.6 billion in bids, mainly from the likes of Verizon, Dish Network, Comcast and Charter Communications. Here is the list of the 20 biggest spenders in the auction.
But that's just the top-line information. What's really important is how much spectrum bidders purchased, and where their licenses are located geographically. After all, buying a 10MHz license covering Las Vegas, New Mexico, is not the same as buying 40MHz covering Las Vegas, Nevada.
The below auction maps have been supplied to Light Reading by Stephen Wilkus of Spectrum Financial Partners, Moise Advisory and JMA Wireless. Each map includes information on the provider of the data, which is all derived from the FCC's Auction 105 results.
The below maps cover some general, aggregated information as well as the CBRS holdings of individual bidders ranging from Verizon to T-Mobile to Cox to Comcast to Viaero Wireless to Chevron to Deere & Company, the maker of John Deere tractors.
First, let's start with the big picture: This map from Moise Advisory shows the aggregated CBRS holdings of the top 10 bidders in the auction.
Moise Advisory also collected the holdings of all the wireless companies that bid in the auction, all the cable companies that bid in the auction, and all the utility companies that bid in the auction:
Now let's look at the individual bidders in the auction, starting with the companies that spent the most.
Verizon spent $1,893,791,991 for 557 licenses.
Dish, bidding as Wetterhorn Wireless, spent $912,939,410 for 5,492 licenses.
Charter, bidding as Spectrum Wireless Holdings, spent $464,251,209 for 210 licenses.
Comcast, bidding as XF Wireless Investment, spent $458,725,900 for 830 licenses.
Cox spent $212,805,412 for 470 licenses.
Southern California Edison spent $118,951,433 for 20 licenses. And Sempra Energy, bidding as San Diego Gas and Electric Company, spent $21,273,340 for 3 licenses.
Windstream spent $38,534,863 for 1,014 licenses.
Mediacom spent $29,478,887 for 576 licenses.
Nextlink Internet, bidding as AMG Technology Investment Group, spent $28,489,750 for 1,072 licenses.
ATN International, bidding as SAL Spectrum, spent $20,396,530 for 1,569 licenses.
Alabama Power spent $18,878,280 for 271 licenses.
Shentel spent $16,118,381 for 262 licenses.
VTX1 Companies spent $15,373,263 for 112 licenses.
Viaero, bidding as NE Colorado Cellular, spent $15,087,268 for 558 licenses.
U.S. Cellular spent $13,538,232 for 243 licenses.
Watch Communications spent $10,942,047 for 517 licenses.
Cable One spent $10,544,441 for 547 licenses.
Oil and gas company Chevron spent $1,065,201 for 26 licenses.
John Deere tractor company Deere & Company spent $ 545,999 for 5 licenses.
T-Mobile spent $ 5,583,000 for 8 licenses.
The University of Virginia spent $ 118,200 for 6 licenses.
— Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies, Light Reading | @mikeddano
