Bidding in FCC's 3.45 GHz Spectrum License Auction Nears $21 Billion

The FCC's important auction of spectrum licenses in the 3.45-3.55 GHz band commenced on October 5 of this year. As of today, the gross proceeds of the bidding stand at nearly $21 billion for this 5G-ideal mid-band spectrum. As an October 8 article in FierceWireless by Bevin Fletcher helpfully explains, "[t]he 3.45 GHz band is licensed in ten 10-megahertz blocks in each partial economic area (PEA), with a total of 4,060 licenses." However, the Commission's rules for this auction place a 40-MHz limit on the amount of spectrum than any winner can acquire and the licenses are subject to restrictions related to government agencies' shared use of the spectrum. The auction's rules included a reserve price of $14.77 billion, so by that measure FCC Auction 110 can be considered a success. The latest information about the auction is available at Mr. Sasha Javid's website. 

I briefly wrote about the 3.45 GHz band and my previous Perspectives from FSF Scholars about lower 3 GHz band spectrum in an October 4 blog post. Free State Foundation scholars will have more to say about federal spectrum policy and FCC spectrum license auctions in the very near future.