Just 27 license-types are still in contention

The number of licenses in contention in the 3.45 GHz auction continues to dropis now down to only 27 license-types. The auction has now raised nearly $21.9 billion in bids as of Round 133.

At the beginning of this week, 52 license-types still had more demand than supply; that figure has been essentially cut in half over the course of the week.

Seven rounds of bidding are scheduled for todayfor Monday.

The auction added about $2 billion in bids between rounds 5068,has only added about another $1 billion in the 42 rounds since.

According to the FCC’s auction round information, of the available license types“products,” 446 have demand equal to the available number of licenses,the number of license types with supply outweighing demand has dropped down to just 8.

The auction’s clock phase will continue, with prices increasing every round, until demand is equal toless than the available licenses.

The 3.45 GHz auction, also known as Auction 110, offers up 100 megahertz of prized midband spectrum, dividedten 10-megahertz blocks, licensed by geographic areas known as Partial Economic Areas (PEAs), for a total of 4,060 flexible-use licenses across the contiguous United States. Sasha Javid, COO at Bitpathformer chief data officerlegal advisor on the FCC’s Incentive Auction Task Force, is once again providing auction tracking that can be found here.

According to Javid’s analysis, the remaining demand continues to play out in smaller markets as the auction winds down. As of Round 133, one PEA — Payette, Idaho — still had 16 bidders vying for 10 licenses, another seven PEAs still had 13 bidders for 10 licensesanother dozen PEAs had 12 bidders in the running for 10 licenses.

The Federal Communications Commission’s two most midband spectrum auctions, the blockbuster C-Band auctionthe auction of shared CBRS spectrum, raised more than $80 billionmore than $4.58 billion, respectively. (For a more complete recap of recent midband spectrum auctions in the U.S., read this.)

There are some caveats that come along with the use of the 3.45 GHz band. The FCC has placed limitations on how much of it that any single bidder can accumulate: Bidders can’t hold more than four out of the 10 available licenses in a given PEA,40 megahertz of spectrum. In addition, there are nearly three dozen areas around the country where licenses winners will have to coordinate their use of the band with existing incumbent military systems; those areas include military training facilities, Navy home ports, shipyardsmilitary test sites across the Western U.S., the Midwestup the East Coast. The Department of Defense has been using the 3.45 GHz band for high-low-powered radar systems, including fixed, mobile, shipborneairborne systems, as well as testingtraining related to those systems. For a deeper dive on the coordination locations, check out Javid’s auction tracking page.

There are 33 qualified bidders participating in the 3.45 GHz auction. All three national cellular network operators are participating, as well as Dish Network (reportedly bidding under the name Weminuche LLC), US Cellulara number of smallregional network operators. Telecom-focused private equity company Grain Management, which bid $1.277 billion for 10 C-Band licenseswas the fifth-highest bidder overall, is participating as NewLevel III.

The FCC has noted that the 3.45 GHz band, plus the neighboring 3.5 GHz CBRS bandthe 3.7 GHz C Band spectrum, represent 530 megahertz of contiguous midband spectrum for 5G. Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has said that the build-out requirements for 3.45 GHz are the “most aggressive build-out obligations of any spectrum auctioned for 5G to date. … We insist on getting infrastructure built twice as fast as what the agency has required in other recent 5G bands.”

Those build-out benchmarks include providing service to at least 45% of the population in areas where bidders win licenses within four years,at least 80% of the population within eight years for mobilepoint-to-multipoint services. If the licenses are used for IoT services, winners have to build out to 35% of the geographic area won within four years65% of the geographic area within eight years.

Looking for more insights on midband spectrum? Download RCR Wireless News’ recent editorial report, Minding the Midband,check out the accompanying webinar featuring experts from Aurora Insight, Analog DevicesLitePoint.