The largest FCC spectrum auction in a decade has netted the government over $11,367,759,500 so far, the Commission reported yesterday. The Advanced Wireless Services auction, which began on August 9th, offers 1,122 licenses to the public in the 1710-1755 MHz and the 2110-2155 MHz bandwidths. These frequencies will be used for wireless voice and data, Internet browsing, and video content.

With round 28 finished, the top spenders include T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, SpectrumCo, and MetroPCS.

T-Mobile, a division of Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG, has bid and provisionally won 125 licenses at a price of $3,798 billion. SpectrumCo, a business group that includes Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Comcast, Bright House Networks and Sprint Nextel, has come in second, winning 100 licenses at a price of $1,718 billion.

MetroPCS, the fourth ranking bidder so far, has bought $1,180 billion worth of license property. Atlantic Wireless ranks last of the top ten bidders. The firm has provisionally won 10 licenses for $53 million dollars.

Not all the participants in this auction represent giant telecom conglomerates. Smaller players include Big Bend Telecom, Green Hills Area Cellular, and the Hill County Telephone Cooperative. Bids coming from these firms stay around the half million dollar range and less.

The rulemaking process leading to this auction has been controversial, acrimony centered on how to prevent large telecom entities from backing small business bidders, therefore qualifying for FCC "designated entity" discounts. The Commission's new auction rules punish companies that engage in "license flipping"—buying licenses then quickly selling or leasing them to other firms without FCC permission.

Perhaps Lynch AWS Corporation qualifies as this auctions' most controversial participant. Mario Gabelli's Lynch Interactive, a telecommunications company, owns the bidding firm. Two weeks before the auction began, Gabelli settled with the Justice Department, agreeing to pay $130 million to resolve a suit charging that he defrauded the government by setting up small bidding telcos, then profiting from FCC license sales.

Lynch AWS has won three licenses so far, at a cost of $444,000.

More stories:

• 2006-05-19, Adelstein blasts recent FCC auction reforms
  
• 2006-05-19, FCC moves Advanced Wireless Services auction to August 9th
• 2006-05-12, Reform group says that AT&T, Verizon and other big firms rig FCC auctions
• 2006-04-26, FCC puts curbs on license flipping
• 2006-04-12, FCC enacts wireless auction reform, but critics say not enough