By Emily Bary; MarketWatch ~ Jan 14, 2022
Verizon absent from FCC’s list of winning bidders
AT&T Inc. emerged as the biggest spender in a major auction for 5G wireless spectrum that brought in more than $22.5 billion in total proceeds, the Federal Communications Commission announced Friday.
AT&T T, +1.42% will spend $9.1 billion on the 3.45 GHz spectrum it won at the latest auction, while Weminuche LLC was the next largest bidder, with $7.3 billion in commitments. Companies sometimes bid at spectrum auctions under alternate names, and Weminuche is a proxy for Dish Corp. DISH, -0.30%, according to analysts.
T-Mobile US Inc. TMUS, -1.45% will pay $2.9 billion for spectrum it amassed at the auction, and Verizon Communications Inc. VZ, -0.45% doesn’t appear on the FCC’s list of winning bidders.
As U.S. wireless carriers look to build out their 5G networks, they’ve partly looked to acquire mid-band spectrum through auctions held by the FCC. This latest auction for 3.45 GHz spectrum was smaller than a record auction for C-Band spectrum that brought in more than $81 billion roughly a year ago.