AT&T was the winning bidder in the AWS-3 auction in the U.S. after spending $18.2 billion on new spectrum licences and accounting for almost half of the total $44.9 billion raised.
TV operator Dish Network emerged as the surprise number two bidder: although the company did not buy any licences itself, it had invested in bidding partners SNR Wireless LicenseCo LLC and Northstar Wireless LLC, which bid a total of $13.3 billion in gross provisional winning bids. The net bid amount was $10 billion as these two companies qualified for a 25 per cent discount.
“DISH’s strategy ap pears to consolidate spectrum in key markets in hopes of forcing wireless carriers to negotiate on favourable terms as data consumption continues to ramp,” Jefferies analysts noted in a brief commentary on the winning bidders.
Figures released by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also revealed that Verizon and T-Mobile bids were $10.4 billion and $1.8 billion respectively.
The winning operators issued statements after the FCC announcement last week, but are unable to comment in detail in compliance with the FCC’s anti-collusion quiet period rules. That period ends on 13 February.
“Growth in our customers’ mobile data usage continues to explode, driven by mobile video traffic. This spectrum investment will be critical to AT&T staying ahead of customer demand and facilitate the next generation of mobile video entertainment,” said John Stankey, chief strategy officer at AT&T.
The company said that as a result of the auction, AT&T now covers 96% of the U.S. population with contiguous AWS-3 spectrum.
Verizon confirmed it had acquired a total of 181 licences in markets covering 192 million POPs, or 61% of the United States.
The auction originally began in November 2014 with 70 companies qualified to participate. Some 1,614 licences were up for grabs in the 1695-1710-MHz, 1755-1780-MHz and 2155-2180-MHz bands.
