Who’s Winning The FCC Auction? Nobody!

The FCC’s wireless spectrum auction continues with some heated bidding, and an unusual and somewhat unexpected turn of events appears to have left absolutely no one with the provisional winning bid for the coveted C-block of spectrum.
Both Google and Verizon, and possibly AT&T, have been cautiously bidding for the national package of C-block. Under the rules, companies who are not the high bidder must bid in every round (or use one of their only three waivers) or they exit the auction, so bidders will often bid on the cheaper regional divisions of the spectrum in order to avoid having to commit to the expensive national package.
Whichever is bidded higher, the national or divided regions of the spectrum, goes to the winner, with the lower segment being ignored. It was assumed the bidding on the national package would almost certainly be higher than the regional bids, so they were […]

See original post by Nathan Weinberg