Mixed blessing for Google in FCC's Auction 73
 

It's only bloomin' Friday's IT Blogwatch: in which the Federal Communications Commission publishes the draft rules for the 700MHz auction. Not to mention the Salmon Dance...

Matt Hamblen reports:

Public comments are due to the Federal Communications Commission by the end of the month on rules for a Jan. 16 auction of 700-MHz spectrum, which is expected to yield more than $10 billion. One provision in the proposed rules calls for keeping the identities of the bidders and the amounts of each bid secret until each round of bidding is closed in order to improve competition. The FCC approved the rules in July ... The auction is officially being dubbed Auction 73.
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The spectrum was made available by the freeing up of TV channels in the conversion to digital TV by 2009. The auction's proceeds will go to the U.S. Treasury. Some analysts have said the auction total could reach $20 billion, with an active field of bidders.

Bidding will be done anonymously ... the bidders' names and net bid amounts View the full story