The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has raised $44.9 billion - a record - in its wireless spectrum auction.
The AWS-3 airwaves auction concluded on Thursday, Jan. 29, and the mid-band spectrum is said to be between the frequencies of 1700MHz and 2100MHz.
With increasing demand for video streaming and other apps, Wireless network operators like AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon Communications, as well as satellite TV provider Dish Network Corp. - to name a few - competed for licenses for the new airwaves in a bid to cater to consumer requirements.
"Today we closed bidding Auction 97 - by far the highest-earning spectrum auction the United States has ever seen. But it was much more than that. This auction also marked a new era in spectrum policy, where a collaborative and unprecedented effort resulted in new commercial access to federal spectrum bands," revealed FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.
The FCC did not divulge who the winners of the auctioned spectrum were, but will reveal the same in the next few days. Post 2008, the just-concluded auction was the biggest opportunity for companies to purchase new wireless spectrum. At the time the FCC raised $19.1 billion via the 700MHz spectrum sale.
Auction 97 was started by the FCC on Nov. 13 in 2014 with a goal of raising a minimum $10.6 billion for the 1600 licenses that were up for grabs. However, in the first week of the bidding itself, the auction passed the $10 billion mark, indicating that bigger things were on the cards.
Since the current spectrum is not thought to be as valuable as the low-band spectrum (where signals travel faster), the record revenue raised has surpassed experts' expectations.
"The results of this auction confirm the strong market demand for more spectrum," noted Wheeler.
He also added that the FCC was confident that demand for the 600MHz low-band airwaves, which will be auctioned in 2016, would continue to grow.
The money raised from the auction will be used to pay for a public safety network worth $7 billion, as well as increase the funds of the FCC treasury. Wheeler also predicts that the new airwaves will give a major fillip to the U.S. GDP and lay the foundation for several thousand new jobs.
