FCC's Spectrum Auction Approaches $20B in Bids

An anonymous reader writes "After 32 rounds, the FCC has raised more than $18.8 billion in its 700-MHz auction, well surpassing its own early estimates of attracting between $10-15 billion in offers. That's undoubtedly good news for the agency. Since the auction began on Jan. 24, both the FCC and wireless experts have expressed ongoing concerns about meeting those estimates. Once the auction was underway, those worries were compounded by a shaky economic forecast and the possibility of a looming recession."

Oh well

[Quiet_Desperation]

I figured my $50 bid wouldn't fly, but a man can dream.

In a similar vein

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm auctioning the oxygen inside FCCs Washington offices, who'll start me at $1 billion?

Mod the truth down, but it's still the truth

[Quiet_Desperation]

I, like many Americans, am ghastly concerned with how my government spends money.

Define "many". Most don't seem to give a damn because it's generally someone else's money.

they couldn't burn all this cash.

I'm guessing you are a recent immigrant? Welcome to the USA, where the government can burn through an arbitrarily large amount of money in an arbitrarily small span of time.

spinners on their pocket protectors

I totally want to spread that as a meme.

Re:FCC '08 Budgetary Resources are $433 Million

[Paiev]

In other news, the Republican presidential campaign received an unexpected boost today from an anonymous donor.

$208?

[sharopolis]

Did anyone else read the headline as $208? Maybe it's just my font but for a moment I was planning on bidding myself. I'm not sure what I'd do with a wireless spectrum at the moment, but for that kind of money it'd be worth buying one just to keep around in case of emergency.