Most of the stories you will see about the C-band auction will emphasize the sheer amount of money spent to acquire some of the 280 MHz of spectrum. The auction will set a new record for spending in a single auction.
The reason is that the Federal Communications Commission has never before auctioned so much desirable mobile spectrum (low band or mid band) in a single auction. The prior record was the sale of AWS-3 licenses for about 65 MHz of capacity that were crucial for 4G networks.
The final prices vary by market and type of license, but nationwide average prices were 94 cents per MHz-POP.
The AWS-3 auction made available a total of 65 MHz of capacity. The C-band auction was for 280 MHz of capacity, about four times as much as the AWS-3 auction. All other things being equal--the AWS-3 auction being central for U.S. 4G and C-band being central for U.S. 5G--the total amount of assets at stake in the C-band auction is four times the amount of AWS-3 assets.
So one would expect, based simply on volume, to see C-band proceeds four times greater than was bid for AWS-3. That auction raised $45 billion. So four times more spectrum, with the same strategic value--would in principle not be out of line in costing $180 billion.
Nobody believed that would happen, and it did not. On a cost per MHz basis, C-band prices were clearly less expensive than was the AWS-3 4G spectrum. The difference is simply the amount of spectrum being purchased.
AWS-3 prices were far higher, at an average of $2.72.
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