214 Bidders Qualify To Be In FCC Airwaves Auction

Washington (dbTechno) - The FCC has come out and stated that there are 214 bidders who have qualified and been cleared to take part in the U.S. airwaves auction set for next week. Some of the companies include Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc., Google Inc. and others.

The airwave auction was set up by the FCC to try and advance mobile phones further and is likely to end with a price point of around $15 billion or higher before the auction is all said and done with.

The FCC will start the auction of 1,200 spectrum licenses on January 24th. Companies will place bids through the FCC website or by telephone. The plan is for the winning wireless carrier to use the spectrum for high-speed data services.

The front-runners include AT&T, Verizon, as well as Google. Google wants the spectrum to sell more advertising on phones, while AT&T and Verizon would likely use it for video and music downloads.

There were 27 companies which did not qualify for the auction, including Frontline Wireless, a start-up wireless company which was hoping to use it to build a nationwide network.

There will be two bidding rounds on day one, and three rounds on day two. The FCC will announce the highest bid amount for each license at the end of every round.

A “mock auction” will be held on January 22nd to allow the companies to get to know the auction system.

According to reports Verizon Wireless appears to lead the pack right now, but Google is also said to be ready to make a big splash.