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  "description": "SpaceX did not compete widely, but has reportedly reiterated to investors it’s planning its own mobile service",
  "path": "/verizon-accounts-for-88-percent-of-aws-3-auction-spending/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-26T18:34:14.000Z",
  "site": "https://broadbandbreakfast.com",
  "tags": [
    "a list of winners",
    "Learn about America250 / Telecom150",
    "selling its remaining licenses",
    "to FCC data",
    "Financial Times",
    "a Friday blog",
    "lower-than-expected",
    "planned joint venture",
    "one of them"
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  "textContent": "WASHINGTON, June 26, 2026 – Verizon was by far the biggest spender in the government’s re-auction of AWS-3 wireless licenses, putting up $3.16 billion for 82 licenses.\n\nThe total auction proceeds were $3.57 billion, meaning Verizon accounted for 88.5 percent of the money spent. The Federal Communications Commission posted a list of winners on Friday.\n\nLearn about America250 / Telecom150\n\n\n                            Learn about America250 / Telecom150\n                        \n\nT-Mobile spent nearly $278 million for 102 licenses, and AT&T is set to pay nearly $121 million for 10 licenses. The big three carriers won 194 of the 200 licenses up for sale.\n\nSpaceX did not widely participate, winning two licenses for $8.5 million.\n\nThere were two unpaired licenses up for sale that complimented the unpaired AWS-3 licenses SpaceX is already buying from EchoStar for its direct-to-device service. SpaceX only won one of those (the other went to Blue Ridge Wireless, a smaller carrier), along with a paired license covering the Gulf of Mexico.\n\nEchoStar, which is in the process of retiring its wireless network and selling its remaining licenses, also won two licenses for $1.2 million. The company’s subsidiary handed back the licenses in the first place after the FCC concluded it improperly received small business bidding credits, and as part of the penalty EchoStar was on the hook for any shortfall if the auction fetched less than $2.9 billion.\n\nThe company likely participated to push prices up and ensure it would avoid such a payment, according to industry analysts. BNP Paribas senior analyst **Sam McHugh** said in an investor note last week that it was possible EchoStar “got stuck with some of these licenses” as a result of that effort.\n\nVerizon won each of the four most valuable licenses in the auction, according to FCC data. Those covered New York, Boston, and two Chicago markets and collectively cost the carrier $1.85 billion, more than half the total auction proceeds.\n\nBefore the auction “we wrote that Verizon should have the most demand for the spectrum of the Big Three, given its relative spectrum holdings, but weren’t convinced they’d bid aggressively as we weren’t sure of their priorities under the new CEO and with a relatively constrained balance sheet,” McHugh wrote in a Friday investor note. “The markets may not applaud the incremental debt, but beyond that short term impact we think its acquisition here was wise.”\n\nHe said the carriers might take it as a positive sign that SpaceX didn’t compete heavily for bids, as it was speculated the satellite operator might take the chance to scoop up extra airwaves to compete more directly with the terrestrial mobile operators.\n\nBut, he noted, the Financial Times reported Friday that SpaceX COO **Gwynne Shotwell** told investors at an IPO roadshow that the company was planning on launching its own mobile service for U.S. customers, and could even build a terrestrial network to support it.\n\nSatellite industry analyst **Tim Farrar** said in a Friday blog that “threats to buy a mobile operator or build a terrestrial mobile network seem like a paper tiger, which would do nothing to leverage SpaceX’s ‘core strengths’” set out in its IPO filing.\n\nHe wrote that, now that it's a public company, the satellite operator is going to need much higher revenue from T-Mobile to show investors growth this year. T-Mobile offers a direct-to-cell service through a partnership with SpaceX, using the carrier’s own spectrum, and pays a monthly fee to the satellite company.\n\nThat deal is exclusive for now, but that’s set to expire next month, Farrar noted. He wrote that T-Mobile comments about lower-than-expected usage of the service was an indicator it didn’t want to pay more. He also saw the carriers’ planned joint venture on direct-to-device deals as a means of preventing SpaceX from getting one of them to pay a much higher price.\n\n“This is certainly the right time for the MNOs to hold the line on pricing of the Starlink Mobile service, as it will set an advantageous precedent for future D2D services if the wholesale cost for MNOs is in the low tens of cents per customer per month,” he wrote.",
  "title": "Verizon Accounts for 88 Percent of AWS-3 Auction Spending",
  "updatedAt": "2026-07-08T21:52:07.372Z"
}