Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) has emerged as the top bidder in an $81 billion auction that provides the license to use mid-band spectrum for 5G services.
What Happened: The Federal Communications Commission(FCC) said that the auction net winning bids resulted in $81.11 billion, with 21 bidders winning all of the available 5,684 licenses.
Verizon’s Cellco Partnership subsidiary emerged as the top bidder in the auction for the coveted C-band spectrum with a winning bid of over $45 billion, followed by AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) through AT&T Spectrum Frontiers LLC with a bid of $23.41 billion.
T-Mobile Us Inc (NASDAQ: TMUS)'s T-Mobile License LLC had the third winning bid of $9.34 billion.
Verizon’s Cellco Partnership won 3,511 licenses in the auction, while AT&T Spectrum Frontiers LLC won a total of 1,621 licenses.
United States Cellular Corp. won 254 licenses to take the third position.
Why It Matters: Winning licenses for the airwaves is crucial for the carriers to develop their 5G networks.
In December, Verizon announced it had extended 5G nationwide to cover a total of 230 million people in over 2,700 cities.
Price Movement: Verizon shares closed 0.2% higher at $57.12 on Wednesday and added almost 0.3% in the after-hours session.
Image: Frederik Lipfert via Unsplash
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