Verizon Wireless opens spectrum bid at $5 billion

Verizon Wireless has notified the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that the company is prepared to open bidding at $5 billion for 10 MHz of nationwide PCS spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band should the Commission, as required by law, determine to make spectrum in that band available for auction to the highest bidder.

The FCC is currently deliberating how to solve interference to public safety channels caused by Nextel's radio transmissions; Nextel argues that it will fix the problems it has created for public safety throughout the nation only if it is rewarded with a grant of prime spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band. This would violate FCC rules, federal law, and more than a decade of U.S. spectrum policy, according to Verizon's attorneys. Verizon Wireless, law enforcement, and others believe that Nextel's interference with public-safety channels can be resolved within the 800 MHz band, without using valuable spectrum that could be sold at auction.

In a letter to John Muleta, Chief of the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, Verizon Wireless Vice President of Business Development Molly Feldman emphasized that by not following long-defined, spectrum-auction law, and instead providing Nextel with a multi-billion dollar spectrum give-away, the federal treasury - and American taxpayers - will be harmed by the loss of billions of dollars otherwise paid by the highest bidders.