T-Mobile USA leads early bidding in US FCC auction
yahoo.reuters.com
Wed Aug 9, 2006 1:20pm ET
Market View
WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - T-Mobile USA, the No. 4 U.S. wireless carrier, led the early bidding on Wednesday for valuable licenses for advanced wireless services like high-speed Internet access, provisionally winning 31 licenses by offering $437 million.
The Federal Communications Commission auction raised almost $769 million after the first round of bidding and analysts have predicted the sale could raise as much as $15 billion. The sale could last several weeks.
T-Mobile, a unit of Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG (DTEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research), does not have as many wireless airwaves as the bigger U.S. carriers and therefore analysts have expected the company to bid aggressively.
The company was the top bidder for a regional license in the Great Lakes area with an offer of $57.6 million and for a license for the New York City and Newark area with a bid of $16.1 million.
The sale includes 1,122 licenses and a second round will be held later on Wednesday. The bidding will continue until there are no more new bids, withdrawals or other activity in the sale.
Dolan Family Holdings LLC, which has ties to Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Chairman Charles Dolan, was the top bidder for one license in the New York City, Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut area with a $25 million bid.
The joint venture of the major U.S. cable operators and Sprint Nextel Corp. (S.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the No. 3 wireless carrier, bid on 14 regional licenses and was the top bidder for two by offering $47.5 million, one in the northeast United States and one in the western part of the country.
Meanwhile, the partnership between the two top satellite television providers, DirecTV Group Inc. (DTV.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and EchoStar Communications Corp. (DISH.O: Quote, Profile, Research), bid on 25 licenses and was the top bidder for one in the Mississippi Valley region and one in the central United States area by offering a total of $31.2 million.
The cable and satellite companies have not said publicly what they would do with the wireless licenses if they won them. |
