Even though we had the winner of the almighty C block pegged well over a month ago, the 700MHz spectrum auction just ended today, bringing in $19.5 billion for the feds. We'll know who officially won what in about 10 days.
Interestingly, the open access C block was the only one to march past its reserve price of $4.6 billion (courtesy of the Goog), with a winning bid of $4.744 billion, probably by Verizon. The winners can claim their prize in less than a year. Good times for all to ensue! [RCR News]












Comments
so basically that will pay for iraq for what? like a week? big windfall for uncle sam? not so much
go go goooo apple go
$19 Bil - thats enough for hald a missle! whoop!
That figure makes me worry that the winner will try to sneak out of the FCC fine print and use this for evil. $19 Bil seems like a lot to try and not make insane profits on.
@oldmanstan: I think that with that $19.5B we should pay off some of the trillions of money we owe in debt to the other countries. Thats what i think should be done.
thats a lot of money though and it'll do us a good amount in our debt.
O well i dont see that happening so how about we pay all our soldiers to fight for another week, week and a half if we're lucky
"$19.5 billion"
Coming soon to hole in Iraq
I hope it's Bear Stearns!
@lonewolf333: pahahaha yay Bush.
A little more background please? The month ago link says Verizon, but other references are to Google and Apple. This is the most vague post of information I've seen from Giz in a while.
great now we only owe JP Morgan another $10.5billion. Maybe we can sell off a nuclear carrier or something. Maybe the new richest guy in the world needs a yacht
20 billion! WOW, thats enough to pay off 1/500th of the current national debt.
Cool, we can build more missiles.
I had a buddy that was a total C block.
It will be sad if it turns out to be Verizon. I know .. they're supposedly support any device any app. And supposedly the block is going to be open.
However, I suspect like all other cell phone companies these end up being empty promises (like AT&T's $10/month DSL agreement with the gov't), and tightly controlled. Sure it's open, but it has to comply to protocol X which requires key Y which costs a shitload of money.
And what is the government going to do with the money made off of this deal? For our (the public) airwaves? What we need to actually stay technologically relevant is a better infrastructure. Companies don't seem interested in doing good coverage throughout the country with 4G everything, but it's in the publics general interest to have it.
i think i read somewhere that the war in iraq is costing us $1billion/week. so this supports our troops for another 3 1/2 to 4 months.
good job bush! you're a frickin' idiot.
Yeah for those of you saying "that's a day in Iraqistan"...
If you apply critical thinking, you'll soon come to realize that this war has a running total of ~35 trillion dollars to date, at that rate. Yes, that's trillion with a T.
And no, it hasn't cost us that much in the short term yet.
the U.S. has become a whore for money..
pretty soon we'll be as regulated as the europeans..
I thought I was bidding on a Hummel figurine but inadvertently purchased the C-Block. I would cancel my winning bid, but I don't want to ruin my 100% perfect buyer rating on eBay so it looks like I'm stuck with it lol!
OH No! None of that money will go to anything practical like paying off some of the deficit or sending it to pay for more Iraq stuff_ Or maybe ease the taxes a wee bit more for the middle class_ Or spread out among education funding_ Nah_ makes no sense to do anything practical wth the cash_
[insert funny anecdote here] - sorry out of steam on this one -= no funny comment_
"Mission Accomplished"
@VishusBurn: you clearly dont understand just how much debt America actually has, 19 million dollars is 1/46911 of our debt which is currently around 9,382,226,025,861. But you were close you said 1/500th.
@alex14: actually im going to go and learn how to read.
@alex14: Hah!
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