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Thursday March 20, 2008
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Though Google made a big fuss about participating in the 700 MHz spectrum auction, Verizon and AT&T were the big winners, according to results released Thursday.
Verizon shelled out $9.4 billion for 109 licenses in the A, B and C blocks. Its c-block purchases are most noteworthy since that spectrum must be open to all applications and devices. That doesn't seem to be a problem for Verizon, which hosted an open development conference in Manhattan on Tuesday.
AT&T, meanwhile, spent $6.6 billion for 227 licenses in the b-block.
Though Google pushed hard for the c-block open access requirements, analysts did not believe the search engine giant was actually going to buy anything due to costly build-out requirements. They were correct, as Google placed a $4.7 billion bid for the c-block--which met the reserve price and triggered open access--but stopped bidding after that, allowing Verizon to come in a scoop up the spectrum.
Left in the dark was the d-block.
It was supposed to provide access to public safety officials if it met a $1.3 billion reserve price. The lone $472 million bid was actually placed by Qualcomm, but that was not enough. Qualcomm did score some licenses in the e-block, however.
The FCC said Thursday that it was going to de-link the d-block from the other blocks, and ponder how best to re-auction it going forward.
Get the rest of this story on pcmag.com.
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