from BTAB Jeffrey Hines and Bo Fifer - PCS Reauction Update: Day 6
HIGHLIGHTS:
-- The re-auction of PCS frequencies continues after day 6 (30-Mar).
After 16 rounds of bidding (the pace of the auction has increased to 4
rounds/day), the auctions have yielded net bids of $352 million.
Early results, while not terribly significant, are nonetheless
interesting (please see our note dated 22-Mar for identification of
the top 10 qualifying participants).
-- TOP FIVE BIDDERS BY NET BID
(we note that an entity's bid amount can fluctuate (wildly) from round to
round--as opposed to necessarily rising each round--if it loses a high bid
position)
Bidder Markets Bid ($Mil)
Cook Inlet/VoiceStream PCS 30 188.5
OPCS Three 26 28.4
Leap Wireless 12 20.3
Eliska Wireless 7 19.8
ABC Wireless 33 13.7
Source: Federal Communications Commission.
-- TOP FIVE MARKETS BY NET BID
Market Bidder Bid ($Mil)
Bid/POP
Chicago (30MHz) Cook Inlet/VoiceStream 111.3
$14.40
Dallas (30MHz) Cook Inlet/VoiceStream 62.4
$14.40
St. Louis (30 MHz) OPCS Three 14.6
$5.35
Philadelphia (15 MHz) BCN Communications 12.8
$2.15
Detroit (30 MHz) Leap Wireless 10.0
$2.15
Source: Federal Communications Commission.
-- RECENT BIDDING ACTIVITY BY ROUND
New Net % Eligible
Round High Bids Bids Chg. Bidders
13 48 $330M 3% 60
14 47 $339M 3% 60
15 45 $350M 3% 60
16 25 $352M 1% 60
Source: Federal Communications Commission.
-- NET-NET: The auction is showing further signs of slowing down with net
bids showing a low single digit increase and, more importantly,
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. One name that
hasn't surfaced in many rounds: ConnectBid, which bid early and
aggressively on some top markets. Chicago and Dallas continue to draw
the most bidding attention, and represent the top two bids on a per-
POP basis at $14.40/POP and $14.40/POP, respectively. This compares
with an average of $1.35/POP for markets with an active bid... Stay
tuned. |
