Last week, the Federal Communications Commission closed the bidding for Auction 110, for new flexible-use licenses in the 3.45–3.55 GHz, after reaching $21.8 billion. Auction 110 joins the list of one of the highest grossing auctions in FCC history.
At the end of the auction, bidders won 4,041 of the 4,060 available blocks, only leaving 19 blocks not bid on. According to Sasha Javid, Chief Operating Officer at BitPath, who has been dissecting and analyzing the auction results, the licenses were sold on average for $0.666 per MHz per person in the coverage area. In Auction 110, 33 companies were qualified to bid, but winning bidders will not be disclosed until after the assignment phase of the auction is completed.
The assignment phase is the next step in Auction 110. In this phase, which will begin on Thursday, December 9, 2021, auction winners, who won at least one generic block of spectrum in the clock phase, are eligible to bid on frequency-specific blocks within the 3.45-3.55 GHz band. Auction bidders are not required to participate in this phase which is expected to conclude by end of December.