Carriers, Dish Dominate Applications to Bid in 3.45 GHz Auction

The FCC said Wednesday 42 companies filed short-form applications to bid in the 3.45 GHz auction, which starts Oct. 5. Sixteen applications were deemed incomplete. Among those now qualified are AT&T, T-Mobile and UScellular. Verizon has work to do on its application, which was found to be incomplete. Dish Network, which largely sat out the C-band auction, is in. Only 42 applicants applied to bid, down from 74 in the C-band auction. “It appears that Cable has not signed up to bid,” New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin wrote investors: “No other dark horses (such as a Big Tech player) immediately jump out either, suggesting the bulk of the competition for the spectrum will happen between carriers (as we would expect).”