January 31, 2008 at 11:40 pm · Authored by Ricky · Filed under Mobile, Telephony

The FCC’s 700MHz frequency auction is in full swing, and hit an important milestone today. The “C” block, the one everyone wants, finally reached the reserve price of US$4.6 billion. This triggers the requirement that whoever wins this particular block of airwaves is required to operate it ‘open’, allowing any compatible device to access it. If this reserve had not been reached, the FCC would have re-auctioned the “C” block again, without the open access stipulation, paving the way for more closed systems in the U.S. It’s a very good thing that this did not happen.

The FCC is keeping all bids anonymous until after the auction is closed, so we’re not sure who placed the US$4.7 billion bid, but we do know that Verizon, AT&T, and Google were among the bidders most interested in this block of the 700MHz frequency.