The FCC's AWS-3 spectrum auction is still going on, now in round 290, but with rounds only 10 minutes long, that number will have increased by the time this publishes, unless the auction draws to a close.
The FCC starting Friday (Jan. 23) went to 14 rounds per day, 20 minutes apart, up from 11 rounds at 30 minutes apart. There are two tranches of spectrum totaling 65 MHz, and the FCC says that bidding for either band can close independently if there are no more than five consecutive rounds without waivers or bids.
At press time, the total was $44,875,538,600.
There were bids on all but two of the 1,614 geographic licenses up for auction. There have not been any bids for the top priciest licenses ($1 billion-plus), all in the top three markets (New York, Los Angeles and Chicago) since round 64.
The auction began Nov. 13 for licenses in the 1695-1710 MHz/1755-1780 MHz (paired), and 2155-2180 MHz bands.
