US’s C-Band auction ends with record US$80.9 bil
US 5G network expansion to boost orders for Korean companies
US Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) C-band auction closed on Friday as the highest-grossing spectrum auction ever held in the country.
Gross proceeds of Auction 107 hit US$80.9 billion, near double the previous record of US$44.9 billion of Auction 97(AWS-3). The auction made available licenses for 280 MHz of spectrum in the 3.7-3.98GHz.
The end of the auction means US companies will likely begin their investment into 5G networks soon.
This will likely boost exports of South Korea telecom component and equipment companies, including Samsung Electronics’ network business.
According to the FCC, the auction went through 97 rounds and beat market expectations. The highest prediction wad US$51 billion made by New Street Research, while Morgan Stanley Research expected US$35 billion.
Auction 107 was the second auction for C-Band (4GHz-8GHz). The first 5G auction, Auction 105, was for Citizens Broadband Radio Service. It was allocating 70MHz spectrum of 3.55-3.65GHz, which has been used for military satellites. The auction added with proceedings of US$4.6 billion.
The FCC said Auction 107 offered prime spectrum and was biggest such auction.
The US divides the country into 406 region and individually allocate spectrum for each region. It applies partial economic area standard __ it divides regions with a large populace to smaller blocks __ to offer 452 regions in its auction.