Auction footprints:
(1) NextBand = West coast (Seattle; Portland; Santa Barbara; San Louis Obisbo; Sacremento; and LA)and south (Huntsville, AL; Columbia, SC; Chattenooga, TN; Lexington, KY; Birmingham, AL; and Louisville, KY).
That's all that NextBand has on the A Side, interesting footprint. Everything they got they got cheap, average cost around $2/pop. However, while no one was looking, Nextband has picked up 10 out of the top 15 B Side licenses, including NYC. Average cost around $1.00/pop.
(2) Cortelyou = Almost all of Ohio and nothing else.
(3) BTA Associates = Almost all of Colorado (Denver, Colo. Springs, Ft. Collins, Greely, and Grand Junction) and not much else.
(4) Winstar = Orlando, Greensboro, Salt Lake City, New Orleans, Norfolk, and San Francisco. Not much of a pattern here - filling holes in their other footprint?
(5) ALTA = San Diego, Phoenix and Kansas City. Best use of limited up-front $$.
(6) ENMR = Clovis, NM; Roswell, NM; Hobbs, NM; and Lubbock, TX. They will not have ANY worry about rain fade with these markets. But why pay $9+/pop for the NM markets?
(7) AR Net = Santa Fe, NM; El Paso, TX; Albuquerque, NM; Tuscon, AZ; Amarillo, TX; Omaha, NE. Another dry footprint with better demographics.
(8) WNP = everything else.
My personal favorites are AR Net and BTA.
Of note, presumably McCaw and his folks know as much about wireless as anyone. If he is taking that large of a stake in a deep south footprint (not to mention Seattle), what does that say about rain fade and tree interference? |
