The Federal Communications Commission’s biggest-ever auction of wireless spectrum closed Thursday and raised a record $44.9 billion, a boon for taxpayers and a sign of the growing cost of supporting Americans’ smartphone habit.
The haul is more than twice as much as the government brought in from its last major sale of spectrum in 2008, back when Apple Inc.’s iPhone was only about a year old.
It isn’t yet clear which among the 70 participants who qualified may have won the licenses that were up for sale. Also unknown is how much big bidders such as Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc., T-Mobile US Inc. and Dish Network Corp. may have paid. Bidding is confidential, and the FCC says the results won’t be released right away.
Still, the auction’s aggressive bidding surprised analysts, who thought it would be a quiet affair dominated by AT&T and Verizon. Anonymous results show multiple bidders fought hard for coveted licenses in markets such as New York and Los Angeles
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