WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission today accepted 106 applications for 600 MHz licenses purchased in the TV spectrum incentive auction by 15 wireless providers.
“There are no petitions to deny or other requests pending that would prevent grant of these licenses,” the commission said in a Public Notice released today.
Today’s tranche was comprised of smaller bidders in markets ranging from partial economic area No. 54, in Buffalo, N.Y., to Valentine, Neb., No. 410 and the U.S. Virgin Islands, No. 414. (Partial economic areas, or PEAs, represent the geographic division of wireless licensing versus the 210 designated market areas used for broadcast licensing.)
All but about five of the 106 applications accepted today involved bidding credits for rural providers. A bidder who qualified for the rural service credit received a 15 percent discount on “a winning bidder’s bid.” Bidders who qualified for the small business discount received either a 15 or a 25 percent discount off the price at which they won the license.
The 15 providers, along with their winning bids, according to the April 6,2017 Forward Auction Bidder Summary:
· Carolina West Wireless, with 14 license applications accepted across nine North Carolina markets. (Carolina West Wireless is part and parcel of the CWW Consortium of rural bidders, but these 14 licenses comprise all those won by the consortium.) Gross payment on the 14 was $13.4 billion adjusted to $11.4 billion on the 15 percent rural bidding credit.
· Cellular South Licenses, LLC was granted all of its 11 license applications across six Mississippi PEAs for $19.5 million and no discount.
· Chariton Valley Telephone Co. was granted three applications in three Missouri PEAs for $4.7 million before and $4 million after the 15 percent discount.
· CT Cube L.P.was granted 12 applications in six Texas PEAS for $2.7 million before and $2.3 million after discount.
· East Kentucky Network, LLC was granted three applications for the Bluefield, W.V. PEA for $11.2 million before and $9.5 million after discount.
· Inland Cellular LLC was granted two applications in Lewiston, Idaho, for $730,000 before and $620,500 after discount.
· LICT Wireless Broadband Co. LLC was granted two licenses in Traverse City and Alpena, Mich., for $686,000, no discount.
· NE Colorado Cellular, Inc was granted 15 licenses across seven Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska PEAs for $11.9 million before and $10.2 million after discount.
· Northeast Nebraska Telephone Co. was granted its single application for one license in South Sioux City, Neb., for $733,000 before and $623,050 after discount.
· Northern Valley Communications, LLC was granted its single application for Aberdeen, S.D., for $123,000 before and $92,250 after a 25 percent small entity discount.
· Nsight Spectrum LLC was granted seven applications across five Wisconsin and Michigan PEAs for $3.9 million, no discount.
· SAL Spectrum, LLC was granted 18 applications across 14 PEAs across the contiguous states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. SAL won a total of 32 licenses across 23 PEAs for $47.7 million, no discount.
· Spotlight Media Corp. was granted eight applications across eight disparate PEAs for $5.6 million before and $4.2 million after the 25 percent small entity discount.
· The AlaskaWireless Network, LLC was granted six applications across four Alaska PEAS for $1.4 million, no discount.
· Triangle Communication System,Inc. was granted two applications in Great Falls, Mont., for $392,000 before and $333,200 after discount.
This makes the second tranche of 600 MHz applications the commission had accepted. It approved 2,319 applications on May 18, most of which represented the heavy hitters on the bidding side—AT&T, Dish, T-Mobile, Comcast, etc. The two tranches represent 87 percent of the 2,776 licenses won in the incentive auction by 50 of the 62 qualified bidders.
