The FCC posted yesterday a list of bidders in the 700 MHz auction (PDF here) and this pre-game rosters of players yielded a few surprises. The first, which has widely been picked up by the press, is that Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who also owns the controlling stake in cable company Charter Communications, among other properties, is a bidder, using the corporate incarnation of Vulcan Spectrum LLC.
An even bigger surprise is that, seemingly contrary to a report that appeared in the WSJ, DBS company EchoStar isn't on the list of bidders. This is big news because if EchoStar were bidding for spectrum, it couldn't, due to the FCC's anti-collusion rules, complete a rumored merger with its telco partner AT&T. It's possible, however, that EchoStar is bidding under some other corporate entity that appears on the list...stay tuned. Update: As a commenter pointed out, EchoStar did file..under the name Frontier.
Yet another mystery: although cable operator Cablevision Systems confirmed it was bidding in the auction, I couldn't easily find it on the list. During the last big spectrum auction, the AWS auction, Cablevision submitted its bid as "Dolan Family Holdings," which doesn't appear on the 700 MHz bidder list. Likewise, no company designated as Cablevision or CVC (its stock symbol) or anything near to Cablevision appears on the list. Similarly, cable company Cox Communications said it would bid, but no "Cox-like" corporate designation appears on the list. [Update: the holiday stress is taking its toll on my ability to read. As another commenter pointed out, Cablevision filed under CSC Spectrum Holdings while Cox filed under Cox Wireless.]
But another cable operator, Bresnan Communications, is clearly on the list, which is a surprise. Bresnan was founded by industry pioneer Bill Bresnan and serves only 300,000 customers in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming.
Cynthia Brumfield at 9:06 AM|Comments(2)
FYI:
Posted by: Nate at December 20, 2007 6:55 AM
Little more research. EchoStar are bidding. They filed under the name Frontier. Many companies have filed under "aliases"
Posted by: Nathan at December 19, 2007 11:39 AM
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