Incumbents Likely To Sweep Spectrum Auction

The incumbent telcos are likely to get most of the interesting licenses at next week’s US spectrum auction, according to analysts in this Dow Jones article. The general consensus is that the spectrum is so desirable the cost of the winning bid will be prohibitive, and if a company does raise the dough they still have to build the network. Joe Norgaard, managing director of wireless business consultancy Spectral Advantage, raised a very valid point about the challenge facing a company looking to build a competing wireless network: “All Verizon (NYSE: VZ) has to do is buy one (license), and they make life difficult for Google (NSDQ: GOOG), because they’d never have a nationwide footprint.”

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