From the Wall Street Journal .............. WASHINGTON -- A government auction of wireless-communications licenses is winding down after attracting bids of about $569 million through 65 rounds.
As the Federal Communications Commission auction entered its
fourth week Thursday, only 47 new high bids were cast by
companies vying for 986 licenses. New bids in that round boosted
auction revenue just 0.12%, the FCC said.
Some 139 companies qualified to bid for rights to use airwaves to
deliver telephone, video and Internet services via an emerging
wireless technology called local multipoint distribution service, or
LMDS.
The top bids for licenses to serve the nation's biggest cities have
been virtually unchanged in recent days. If no new bids are cast for
those markets, winners will include WNP Communications Inc. and
Nextband Communications.
WNP, whose backers include venture capital funds Norwest
Capital and Chase Manhattan Venture Fund, has offered $186.8
million for 40 licenses. Nextband, backed by Nextlink
Communications Inc. and Nextel Communications Inc., placed
bids of $136.5 million for 45 licenses, according to the FCC.
Of the 986 licenses on the block, half will give owners the right to
use big 1,150 MHz slices of spectrum. The rest of the licenses
cover 150 MHz swaths of airwaves.
The Los Angeles market has garnered the highest bids so far, with
Nextband offering $36 million for the big license and WNP bidding
$7.4 million for the smaller one. In the Chicago market, WNP
offered $30.4 million for the 1,150 MHz license while Nextband
holds the top bid for the smaller license with an offer of just under
$7 million.
WNP also has the high bid, at $23.8 million, on the big license to
serve parts of New York; Nextband has offered $16.9 million for
the smaller license.
The auction ends when no new high bids are cast.
The FCC hopes LMDS will bring new competition to the telephone
and cable-TV industries. The technology is also capable of
transmitting data over the Internet at superfast speeds............................................................
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