The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) closed an AWS-3 re-auction with gross winning bids topping $3.5 billion in what was the agency’s first spectrum sale after a four-year lapse in activity.

Bidding concluded for Auction 113 yesterday (23 June) after 72 rounds for the 200 licences across the 1695-1710MHz, 1755-1780MHz and 2155-2180MHz bands.

All the licences received bids in the process, which had 17 qualified participants and began on 2 June.

The frequencies were originally auctioned to Dish Network, which is now part of EchoStar, in 2014 but never made it into service after a series of defaults and bid withdrawals left them sitting unused in the FCC’s inventory for more than a decade.

In 2015, Dish Network affiliates Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless surrendered a number of spectrum licences worth $3.5 billion after a dispute with the FCC over discounts.

In April, the FCC and EchoStar reached an agreement which included the latter dropping a lawsuit it filed in a US Court of Appeals over the defaults by Northstar and SNR.

The financial total carries significant regulatory implications. Up to $3.3 billion of the proceeds will be legally directed to cover funds borrowed for the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, commonly known as the “rip and replace” initiative to swap out Huawei and ZTE gear from US networks.

Surpassing the $3.5 billion mark clears the $2.9 billion threshold required for EchoStar to avoid paying a potential shortfall payment to the regulator under a prior settlement framework.

While specific winning bidders remain anonymous under strict anti-collusion quiet period rules, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile US and SpaceX are widely expected to have driven the demand.

The event marks a milestone for FCC chair Brendan Carr, representing the return of the agency’s auction power.

“After years on the sidelines, FCC auctions are finally back,” Carr stated. “Today’s successful auction generated billions of dollars in competitive bids to put spectrum to effective commercial use, and it bolsters competition in the wireless marketplace.”

The FCC plans to carry the momentum into its upcoming Upper C-Band auction, tracking on schedule to meet a congressional deadline to auction at least 100MHz of the spectrum by July 2027.

The post FCC wraps AWS-3 re-auction with $3.5B in bids appeared first on Mobile World Live.

ABC is urging viewers to write to the Federal Communications Commission and tell it to stop trying to "control who is allowed to appear" on The View. An ABC commercial that started airing yesterday asked viewers to submit responses to the FCC's call for public comment on whether the talk show is a “bona fide news interview program.”

"The View has welcomed your favorite guests and covered the issues you care about for nearly 30 years," ABC's ad said. "Now, the FCC wants to control who is allowed on the show. Viewers, use your voice. Tell the FCC to let the viewers decide."

For decades, the FCC has classified late-night and daytime entertainment talk shows as bona fide news for the purposes of their interview segments. This makes the shows exempt from the equal-time rule, which requires equal opportunities for opposing political candidates on non-news programming.

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