Some 104 entities have filed full or partial applications to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission indicating the firms have intention to bid in the forward auction of 600-MHz spectrum to be held this year.
Verizon, AT&T, Dish Network, T-Mobile US, Comcast and Liberty Global are among the entities who will be in position to bid. That list also tells one much about the future direction of U.S. mobile markets, as the list is lead not only by the largest U.S. mobile firms but includes the two largest U.S. cable TV firms (assuming the merger of Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable is approved).
Much is unclear, including the amount of spectrum that might eventually be available to acquire. The reason is that the two-state auction requires TV broadcaster willingness to sell spectrum licenses, and until that auction is completed nobody will know the amount of spectrum assets to be auctioned.
But estimates of 84 MHz up to about 100 MHz have been suggested as the amount of spectrum to be sold.
T-Mobile US is expected to be a big winner in the reserve auction, which sets aside some spectrum for bidders who do not own much lower-frequency spectrum. The actual amount of the set-aside will hinge on the total amount of available spectrum.
AT&T and Verizon will not be able to bid for the set-aside spectrum, which could be as much as 30 Mhz, or little as 10 MHz, in areas where they have more than 45 MHz of lower-band spectrum.
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