(Associated Press via NewsEdge) The FCC issued a list of 168 bidders that have qualified to participate in an upcoming auction of wireless licenses that is expected to raise billions of dollars for the government while ushering in more next-generation services.
The auction of 1,122 licenses, slated to begin on August 9, covers slices of the airwaves that are currently used by the federal government. The FCC also issued a list of more than 80 would-be participants whose applications were rejected.
The qualified bidders include T-Mobile USA, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG that badly needs more spectrum so it can introduce the speedier Internet connections that its main cellular rivals already offer. Two of those competitors, Cingular Wireless and Verizon Wireless also were on the list of qualified bidders even though both already have much more spectrum than T-Mobile.
Also qualified to bid was Lynch AWS, an entity led by money manager Mario Gabelli, who earlier this month reached a settlement of charges that he had defrauded the government in wireless auctions between 1995 and 2000. Gabelli and his affiliated companies agreed to pay $130 million to settle a civil-fraud suit.
It wasn't immediately clear whether other major industry players would be taking part in the coming auction, as many of the qualified bidders were listed under the names of new entities and partnerships formed specifically to go after the new licenses.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the auction may bring in as much as $15 billion, although privately observers expect auction to raise much more.
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