WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission has announced the conclusion of its AWS-3 auction for mid-band spectrum, with results the agency said showed the demand for spectrum is high.
Auction bidding beat expectations with significant per-unit prices and gross winning bids exceeding $3.5 billion.
Bidding in the AWS-3 auction, formally designated as Auction 113, began on June 2, 2026. Seventeen qualified bidders participated in the auction, which ran for 72 rounds.
Up to $3.3 billion of the auction’s proceeds will be used to cover amounts borrowed to support the FCC’s “rip and replace” program and other Commerce Department programs.
The auction made available 200 spectrum licenses in the 1695-1710 MHz, 1755-1780 MHz, and 2155-2180 MHz bands which were subject to bid defaults or bid withdrawals in the 2014 auction and thus have remained unused in the FCC’s inventory since then.
Many of the licenses were ones that Dish won in Auction 97 more than a decade ago; the higher than expected proceeds mean that Dish won’t have to cover a shortfall.
In the run-up to forthcoming Upper C-Band auction, the FCC said that the better than expected results shows that the FCC’s Auctions program is running strong, despite the previous lapse in authority and a four-year gap in conducting an auction.
The FCC also said it is on schedule to meet Congress’s deadline to complete a system of competitive bidding for at least 100 megahertz in the Upper C-band no later than July 2027. Those auctions are expected to have a major impact on the way broadcasters and programmers distribute programming and content.
“Today’s successful auction generated billions of dollars in competitive bids to put spectrum to effective commercial use, and it bolsters competition in the wireless marketplace,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. “We will carry this momentum forward as we prepare for the Upper C-Band auction in the year ahead.”
Auction 113 also featured the debut of the FCC’s brand new application system, which represents a step towards the FCC’s goals of increasing efficiency in agency operations.
