The 700 mhz auction is being declared a big success.
"The $19.6 billion generated by the auction nearly doubled congressional estimates of $10.2 billion," FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin said. "All other 68 auctions conducted by the FCC in the past 15 years collectively generated a total of only $19.1 billion in receipts" "
Yes, but as it appears AT&T and Verizon will be the big winners, what exactly will change?
If the 2 of them bid $ 12.5 billion for current auction, it would work out to $ 100 for each of their current subscribers. Small price to pay for the lock-in and the opportunity to consolidate further in the other half of the market (they currently have 52% of the US mobile market between them).
Will customer service improve - for the last few years mobile has been one of Consumer Reports most complained about service? Will voice quality and data speeds catch up to Europe and leading Asian countries (e.g. less than 20% of US mobile consumers access 3G networks compared to over 60% in Japan)? Will consumers truly be able to leverage the growing network of Apple and Google mobile apps developers, or will telcos continue to dominate with their own apps and services?
I think Kevin Martin should pat himself on back for the auction, but I would love to see him develop a scorecard of cost, customer service, speeds, quality, breadth of apps and services and continually measure how well our consumers are doing against the world.
