BTAB on PCS day 5
HIGHLIGHTS:
-- The re-auction of PCS frequencies continues after day 5 (29-Mar). After
12 rounds of bidding (the pace of the auction has increased to 4
rounds/day), the auctions have yielded net bids of $314 million. Early
results, while not terribly significant, are nonetheless interesting
(please see our note dated 22-Mar for identification of the top 10
qualifying participants).
-- TOP FIVE BIDDERS BY NET BID
(we note that an entity's bid amount can fluctuate (wildly) from round to
round--as opposed to necessarily rising each round--if it loses a high bid
position)
Bidder Markets Bid ($Mil)
OPCS Three 17 115.6
ABC Wireless 36 77.4
Cook Inlet/VoiceStream PCS 34 30.2
Viper Wireless 7 20.4
Beta Communications 5 15.1
Source: Federal Communications Commission.
-- TOP FIVE MARKETS BY NET BID
Market Bidder Bid ($Mil)
Bid/POP
Chicago (30MHz) Cook Inlet/VoiceStream 111.3
$13.60
Dallas (30MHz) ABC Wireless 56.3
$13.00
St. Louis (30 MHz) Cook Inlet/VoiceStream 11.7
$4.25
Philadelphia (15 MHz) Cook Inlet/VoiceStream 11.6
$1.95
Phoenix (30 MHz) Beta Communications 8.8
$3.70
Source: Federal Communications Commission.
-- RECENT BIDDING ACTIVITY BY ROUND
New Net % Eligible
Round High Bids Bids Chg. Bidders
9 41 $246M 8% 63
10 46 $254M 3% 63
11 44 $277M 9% 62
12 47 $314M 14% 60
Source: Federal Communications Commission.
-- NET-NET: The auction is showing its first signs of slowing down with net
bids showing a low single digit increase and, more importnantly, bidders
are slowly beginning to drop out. However, plenty of bidders remain, and
plenty of bidding credits remain eligible so it's likely still too early to
draw any definitive conclusions. Chicago and Dallas continue to draw the
most bidding attention, and represent the top two bids on a per-POP basis
at $13.60/POP and $13.00/POP, respectively. This compares with an average
of $1.10/POP for markets with an active bid... Stay tuned. |
