The US auction of millimeter wave 24GHz 5G spectrum has easily surpassed $1 billion in proceeds during the initial phase of tenders.
Bids hit $1,409,902,875 on Monday afternoon in the 23rd round of the 24GHz auction. That means this auction has already passed the total of $703 million in bids for the first 28GHz 5G auction, which started in November.
Bidding from the 38 qualified parties — including AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile — is still focused on major cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco.
The 24GHz auction has started with a “clock phase” auction in which participants bid on blocks of capacity in 416 Partial Economic Areas (PEAs) across the US over successive bidding rounds, a process which is still underway. The 2,909 24GHz licenses currently up for auction are based on the PEAs — see the FCC’s PEA list — and will be followed by an “assignment phase” that allows the winners of the generic blocks to bid for specific frequency license assignments.
AllNet Insights & Analytics predicted in January that the 24GHz Auction 102 could generate between $2.4 billion and $5.6 billion in final proceeds. Mobile Live
