The $10 Billion Poker Game Begins

Hugh Pickens writes "Monday was the deadline for potential bidders to file with the Federal Communications Commission over the auction of the 700-megahertz band, a useful swath of the electromagnetic spectrum that is being freed up by the move to digital television. Once bidders file they become subject to strict 'anticollusion' rules that in effect prohibit participants from discussing any aspect of their bidding until the auction is over. The next official word will be late December or mid-January, when the FCC announces who has been approved to bid. The auction will start on January 24. Participants will use an Internet system to enter bids on any of 1,099 separate licenses that are being offered (pdf). Most coveted seems to be the C block, 12 regional licenses that can be combined to create a national wireless network. This is the spectrum Google is presumed to be most interested in. The bidding will be conducted in a series of rounds (pdf)."

Oh boy!

[scubamage]

I'm excited!!! Hopefully we'll actually see some genuine competition between these giants.

i'll go first

[Anonymous Coward]

all in

Let's take it up a notch!

[TheHawke]

Sniping, anyone?

FCC's basis for regulation?

[Anonymous Coward]

Did we ever pass an ammendment that granted the federal government the right to regulate the electromagnetic spectrum? I don't speak legalese but I'm pretty sure that it wasn't put in there when the Constitution was written.

Re:i'll go first

[Archangel Michael]

Hardly threatening, since you can't even match the Ante, let alone the small blind.

so..

[JustNiz]

Bids are exclusively via the internet, and Google probably has enough smart people and resources to intercept a few packets from other bidders....

Re:Bogus

[edmicman]

What an udder shame...

That's a moo point. It's like a cow's opinion. It just doesn't matter. It's moo.