FCC Announces More 700Mhz Wireless Bidders

All the Colorado-based companies that applied to bid for Federal Communications Commission licenses to use 700-megahertz radio spectrum appeared on a list of qualified bidders published Monday afternoon.

The FCC-certified participants for the Jan. 24 auction include Frontier Wireless LLC, the subsidiary formed by Englewood-based EchoStar Communications Corp.

Others after licenses are mainly rural Colorado telephone interests seeking a way to bring wireless broadband to the sparsely populated parts of the state.

They are: Blanca Telephone Co., of Alamosa; Eastern Colorado Wireless II LLC, of Wiggins; Farmers Telephone Company Inc. and Farmers Telecommunications Cooperative Inc., both in the southwestern corner of the state; N.E. Colorado Wireless Technologies Inc., a consortium based in Joes; and Union Telephone Co., which operates in northwestern Colorado but is based in Mountainview, Wyo.

The 700-megahertz spectrum auction sells off the analogue range being vacated by the switch of over-the-air broadcast television to digital signals in early 2009.

Auctioning licenses for use of the spectrum is predicted to raise as much as $15 billion.

Source: Biz Journals