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I'm jumping the gun slightly, but it appears AirCell has won the big license in the FCC's air-to-ground spectrum auction: As of the end of the 46th round and several days of bidding, it looks like no new bids are being entered to pass AirCell's sister company AC BidCo LLC for the 3 MHz license that will allow them to operate in-flight broadband for commercial flights in the U.S. AC BidCo has the provisional winning bid for license C, while LiveTV (affiliated with JetBlue) has provisionally won license D (1 MHz). I've written extensively about this auction over the last two weeks, including one possibility for LiveTV's use of a slender spectrum piece. You can read my broader overview, too.
Verizon stopped increasing their bids a few days ago, and the total auction haul right now is over $32m--$31.3m for the 3 MHz license and $1.0m for the 1 MHz license. The clock starts ticking on Verizon AirFone's two years of permitted transition when the auction is completed, but that might include the time required to cross the T's at the FCC after the bidding is done. The FCC's policy involves certain qualifications for bidders and then additional confirmation after bidding is finished.
(Update: At the end of the 48th round, AC BidCo's price hasn't changed, but LiveTV took license D back from Acadia, which had it for a few minutes in round 47. The ante for that 1 MHz chunk is now $1.24m. Bidding rules require 5% minimum increases, which is only $60K, so this could go on for a while. There are still four bidders and several waivers, which means the bidding continues Tuesday with Round 49. Until waivers are all exhausted or bidders withdraw, the auction continues even when it's a fait accompli.)
The reason I'm calling this auction now is that it looks like we're just watching waivers be applied automatically by bidders who have stopped raising bids. There remain just four qualified bidders out of nine to start with, and only Acadia Broadband, the only other bidder for an exclusive 3 MHz license that remains has just one waiver remaining, meaning that they sat out at least two rounds of bids. They may still bid in this final round, but failing that, the 3 MHz exclusive license goes to AirCell.
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