The First Private Online Spectrum Auction

By enhancing SpecEx, we are now able to offer a unique auction ability for spectrum holders to market and sell their excess spectrum licenses. At the IWCE tradeshow in Las Vegas we made the announcement of an offering which will be up for auction:

(1.) Very High Frequency (VHF) spectrum licenses covering 78 counties in Florida and South Georgia

For the show, we also created a flyer with some additional info: Auction Flyer

This spectrum is highly desirable due to its geographic coverage and the wide availability of compatible digital radio equipment from leading vendors including Motorola, Kenwood, Midland and others. In fact, some of the spectrum to be auctioned is being used by Motorola to showcase their MOTOTRBO radio system at the IWCE 2009 Expo.

“With multiple wireless networks across the United States, we are focusing our resources on growing these operational markets,” said Scott MacIntyre, President of Data Radio Management Company Inc. “The undeveloped spectrum assets in Florida are valuable, but they no longer fit in to our current business plans. We’ve had a great working relationship with the Spectrum Bridge team for over a year so we are excited that they offered us the opportunity to monetize this spectrum using an online auction. One of the big advantages of an auction is that it creates an open and level playing field for all interested buyers.”

The licenses can be used for specialized mobile radio (SMR) services, as well as government and private voice/data radio systems. Utilities, oil and gas producers, casinos, transportation, public safety and emergency response agencies, as well as other enterprises and agencies that must reliability communicate with large fleets of two-way radios, can benefit from this spectrum.

For additional auction information, complete prospectus or other license details, please call 1-866-598-7426 or contact Mickey DeChellis at (407) 792-1570 x513.

We also have an area set up on our homepage titled "Announcing the Industry's First Online Spectrum Auction" with some linked articles and the official press release.

Additional licenses for sale or lease can be found at SpecEx.com.

The 700MHz Auction is Over.

The results are mixed, and we won't know who won, or what that means for our wireless future for a few days.

The good news from the government perspective is that the auction raised almost $20B which is twice what was expected. However the D block (the block that required sharing with Public Safety) did not get to it's minimum bid, and the C block (the block requiring open access) only beat it's reserve price by a few percentage points bringing in a total of $4,744,749,000.

The restrictions clearly hurt the perceived value which makes us think that the big bidders were the "usual suspects". We would expect that Verizon and AT&T will be the big winners. Anybody care to weigh in on alternatives? How about what this does for the future of wireless?

Over the next few days as the details emerge we will be able to determine who the big winners and losers are. Then we can start to discuss how spectrum needs will be met for all those who could not or did not participate.

One final thought, divide the $19.5B price tag by the size of the USA (3.79m sq miles) and divide by 52 (the number of MHz actually auctioned) and the price paid averages out to be $98 per MHz/sq mile over the 10 years of the initial license.