Kagan: Wireless Should Be Ready, Able for 2016 Auction

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The major takeaway from an SNLKagan study commissioned by the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition is that the Big Four wireless carriers -- Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint -- and "very possibly" others, will be "fully engaged and sufficiently capitalized bidders" in a 2016 broadcast incentive auction that could raise as much as $80 billion from those wireless carriers. "Our analysis assumes the receipts from all bidders in the 600 MHz auction could well be in the $60 billion-$80 billion range, depending on how many megahertz are being sold once the final stage of the auction is reached," says SNLKagan Media Appraisals Senior Consultant Sharon Armbrust, who produced the report. "That range implies a doubling of the price paid for the 700 MHz spectrum sold in Auction 73 in 2008," and more than the low starting bar of $1.25 per MHZ/pop (a measure of spectrum value based on population reached), perhaps $2.50 Mhz/pop or higher. The report points to a number of factors for that assumed robust wireless participation, including mobile data traffic growing by seven-fold over the next five years, available capital and the importance of getting more spectrum for Verizon and AT&T's business plans.


SNLKagan: Wireless Should Be Ready, Able for 2016 Auction Kagan: Wireless Is Hungry For TV Spectrum (TVNewsCheck)