Sprint, AT&T; Big Winners in FCC Auction

Sprint Corp., AT&T; Corp. and BellSouth Corp. were the top three winners of next-generation cellular licenses in the latest auction of federal airwaves, which closed after reaching $2.517 billion in bids. The sale was the biggest yet in terms of the number of licenses sold. Structured as three simultaneous sales, 1,479 personal communications services, or three PCS licenses per U.S. market, were on the block. They represent a third as much airwave capacity as previous PCS licenses, however, and for that reason and others they commanded a fraction of the prices reaped by those previous Federal Communications Commission sales. Still, these licenses weren’t cheap. AT&T;’s AT&T; Wireless PCS Inc. pledged to pay $406.7 million for 222 licenses to fill out its wireless map, among them Los Angeles and San Francisco. Sprint’s SprintCom Inc. subsidiary led the bidding, offering $544.2 million for 160 licenses for markets including Chicago. BellSouth’s BellSouth Wireless Inc. bid $205.1 million for 39 licenses.