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 NEWS  Federal  Communications  Commission  445  12  th  Street,  S.  W.  Washington,  D.  C.  20554  This  is  an  unofficial  announcement  of  Commission  action.  Release  of  the  full  text  of  a  Commission  order  constitutes  official  action.  See  MCI  v.  FCC.  515  F  2d  385  (D.  C.  Circ  1974).  News  Media  Information  202  /  418-  0500  Internet:  http://  www.  fcc.  gov  TTY:  1-  888-  835-  5322 
 FOR  IMMEDIATE  RELEASE:  NEWS  MEDIA  CONTACT:  September  18,  2006  Chelsea  Fallon  (202)  418-  7991 
 FCC’S  ADVANCED  WIRELESS  SERVICES  (AWS)  SPECTRUM  AUCTION  CONCLUDES 
 Washington,  D.  C.  –  The  Federal  Communications  Commission’s  (FCC)  first  auction  of  Advanced  Wireless  Service  (AWS)  spectrum  licenses  ended  on  September  18,  2006.  A  total  of 
 1,122  licenses  were  offered  in  the  auction,  and  104  bidders  won  1,087  licenses.  The  AWS  licenses  can  be  used  to  provide  any  of  a  wide  array  of  innovative  wireless  services  and 
 technologies,  including  voice,  data,  video,  and  other  wireless  broadband  services  offered  over  Third  Generation  (“  3G”)  mobile  networks.  The  licenses  offered  in  the  auction  encompassed  a 
 range  of  geographic  area  and  megahertz  sizes  in  order  to  accommodate  the  varying  spectrum  needs  of  different  types  of  wireless  providers,  including  those  serving  rural  areas. 


 Auction  No.  66  began  on  August  9,  2006,  and  closed  after  161  rounds  of  bidding,  raising  total  gross  bids  of  nearly  $13.9  billion.  The  top  five  winning  bidders  based  on  the  net  amount  of 
 their  winning  bids  include:  T-  Mobile  License  LLC;  Cellco  Partnership  d/  b/  a  Verizon  Wireless;  SpectrumCo  LLC;  MetroPCS  AWS,  LLC;  and  Cingular  AWS,  LLC.  More  than  half  of  the 
 winning  bidders  in  the  auction  certified  their  qualifications  as  small  business  entities,  enabling  them  to  use  bidding  credits.  The  unsold  licenses  remain  held  by  the  FCC  and  will  be  made 
 available  again  in  a  future  auction. 
 All  winning  bidders  must  make  down  payments  on  their  licenses  within  ten  business  days  after  the  release  of  the  Wireless  Telecommunications  Bureau’s  Public  Notice  announcing  the 
 close  of  the  auction.  Winning  bidders  must  also  file  their  long-  form  applications  (FCC  Form  601)  with  the  FCC  within  the  same  period.  The  grant  of  these  licenses  to  the  winning  bidders  is 
 dependent  upon  the  timely  submission  of  their  down  payments  and  final  payments,  and  the  review  of  their  long-  form  applications. 


 As  required  by  the  Commercial  Spectrum  Enhancement  Act  (CSEA)  for  this  auction,  the  FCC  set  a  reserve  price  to  cover  the  estimated  relocation  costs  of  Federal  stations  occupying 
 1710-  1755  MHz,  the  frequencies  covered  by  half  of  each  AWS  license  in  the  auction.  Net  bids  had  to  total  at  least  $2.06  billion  in  order  to  conclude  the  auction  in  compliance  with  CSEA  and 
 the  reserve. 
 The  FCC  has  completed  64  auctions  in  the  13  years  since  it  was  granted  competitive  bidding  authority.  Further  details  about  this  and  other  FCC  auctions  can  be  accessed  on  the 
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 FCC’s  auctions  web  page  at  http://  wireless.  fcc.  gov/  auctions  and  the  FCC’s  Integrated  Spectrum  Auction  System  web  site  at  http://  auctions.  fcc.  gov. 
 –  FCC  – 
 News  and  other  information  about  the  FCC  are  available  at  www.  fcc.  gov. 
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