Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Wireless Spectrum Bidding Update

Many Bidders For Spectrum To Be Atypical

By DIONNE SEARCEY and AMY SCHATZ
December 19, 2007; Page A8

Google Inc., Cablevision Systems Corp. and other nontraditional players are poised to square off against traditional U.S. wireless entities in the federal government's spectrum auction in January.

Qualcomm Inc., MetroPCS Wireless Inc. and US Cellular Corp. were others among 266 applicants potentially seeking to bid in a list released last night by the Federal Communications Commission. It isn't certain that the applicants will actually bid and some, such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., have paperwork issues to mend before they are allowed to do so. Those companies' applications were marked by the FCC as "incomplete."

The auction is scheduled to take place Jan. 24 and could raise as much as $15 billion for the government.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119803481281138657.html?mod=hps_us_whats_news