Auction 73 is over and Verizon and AT&T come out the big winners. What is Auction 73 you might ask. It is that big FCC auction of the 700 MHz broadband spectrum that is soon being vacated by analog broadcast TV.
The 700 MHz spectrum is broken into five blocks A through E. Verizon won the most coveted block C for a whopping $9.6 billion. AT&T won the majority of block bidding $6.6 billion.
To make a long story short Verizon, AT&T, and to a much lesser extent, the other spectrum winners have an awful lot of bandwidth that they will be able to offer really cool services on top up. What is great for consumers is that the FCC mandated that spectrum winners keep these frequencies open. Open networks mean that any hardware manufacture can create devices to run on top of these networks.
We should start to see some really cool wireless devices hitting the market once these networks get rolling.
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does this also mean that the reception will get better? either way this is very cool!
The rich get richer. ATT and VZW are clearly the top 2 players in the US market, and their lead over carriers like Sprint and TMo is only widening.
GBVZ… Reception gets better, maybe? But what Verizon has talked most about is rolling out 4G for rural areas. Broadband to more people.