AT&T Verizon Wins Big At Wireless Spectrum Auction
Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com
The Big boys spectrum auction results are out and I just get the feeling that nothing has happened! Looks like it was just a game which every incumbent carrier has come out winner, stronger. Do not expect European style price competitions and broadband Internet penetration, that we still lag behind Europe and some Asian countries like South Korea and Japan. My feelings were confirmed when I read the analysis by Professor Crawford, for which you find a link below.
Money and spectrum wise, Verizon has the C Block and AT&T has most of the B block. Verizon bid $9.6 billion to grab most of the C-Block, and AT&T will pay $6.636 billion for the "B-block.". EchoStar, whose designated bidder Frontier Wireless got the E-block, for nearly $711.9 million. Vulcan Spectrum, led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, won two licenses for A-block services in the Portland, Oregon, and Seattle-Tacoma, Washington areas, for which Vulcan will play about $112.8 million.
Google Airwaves Inc. did not win anything, though according to the FCC, it never posted any PWBs, provisionally winning bids. But it did certainly help to bring on the heat to the auction only to shrivel in front of bigger and experienced people.
And such. But the best read that I did on this issue today was from Susan Crawford’s blog. She describes very well in "Why C Block Matters!" Following is an excerpt from her post.
The bottom line. Verizon has won spectrum it arguably didn’t even need, given its existing spectrum holdings. It retains the discretion to act as a traditional cellphone-model company - picking and choosing among applications and devices, underselling “open” devices, and discriminating against traffic that undermines its business model. This isn’t great news for the Internet model of access.
