FCC Forward Auction Hits $14.4 Billion

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FCC


With $12.61 billion raised through Round 9, the FCC wanted to speed up the bidding process by shifting from two 120-minute bidding sessions per day to three hour-long sessions, set for 10am ET, 1pm ET and 4pm ET.

The “hurry up, please” approach may be working: The FCC concluded its 12th round of bidding in its forward auction Tuesday afternoon with $14.4 billion raised.

How did bidding transpire in Round 10? About $590 million was raised, sending the total to $13.18 billion going into Round 11.

An additional $610 million was raised in Round 11, and then again in Round 12.

Thus far, the vast majority of the forward auction proceeds were seen in Round 1, with just over $2 million raised in Rounds 2 through 7.

Round 8 generated an additional $500,000, sending the total to $12.04 billion entering Round 9.

Although just $2.5 billion of the $12 billion raised through Round 9 came following the very first round, and some $570 million was raised in Round 9, MVP Capital managing director Elliot Evers tells RBR + TVBR not to read too much into this early activity, as there is still “a long long way to go.”

Now, with the three hourly sessions set to continue indefinitely, action might be heating up.

“We may make subsequent schedule changes based upon our monitoring of the bidding and assessment of the auction’s progress,” the FCC notes. Any changes will be announced in the Auction System and the Public Reporting System.

Bidders can also view the schedule of upcoming rounds on the Auction Schedule screen within the Auction System.

Bidders must ensure that they submit their bids before the end of each round. Should a bidder fail to submit a bid for a product for which it has processed demand, the Auction System will consider that to be a missing bid. A missing bid will be treated as a request to reduce demand to zero. If that bid is applied partially or in full, the bidder’s eligibility may be irrevocably reduced.

Bidders should have firm back-up arrangements, which may include calling the Auction Bidder Line, ready for immediate implementation in case they encounter any difficulties accessing the Auction System.

The reverse auction concluded bidding with a clearing cost of $86.42 billion and a clearing target was set at 126 MHz of spectrum.

Note: This story was updated at 6:20pm ET on August 23 with Round 12 totals.