Bidding stalls again on key U.S. wireless airwaves

By Peter Kaplan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bidding stalled on Tuesday in the closely watched auction of a piece of wireless airwaves that the U.S. government is selling, according to data released by the Federal Communications Commission.

There were no new offers for the nationwide "C" block slice of wireless spectrum to top previous high bids totaling $4.74 billion.

Tuesday's pause prompted speculation that bidding for the C block spectrum may have run its course, and that the most likely possible winner could be either Verizon Wireless or Internet search leader Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Bidders' identities are kept secret until the entire auction ends, under FCC rules. The end won't come until bidding has stopped on all five blocks of spectrum up for sale in the auction, which will probably take at least another week or two.

The $4.74 billion in bids for eight regional pieces of the C block airwaves on Monday surpassed a $4.71 billion offer made last Thursday for a nationwide package of the spectrum.

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Rebecca Arbogast said there were several possible scenarios as to what companies had bid on the C block airwaves.

The most likely of those, she said, is that Verizon Wireless pushed the C block bids up to $4.74 billion on Monday in order to top an earlier bid by Google.

It was also possible that the earlier, $4.71 billion offer was made by Verizon Wireless, and that another competitor is aiming to force Verizon to up its bid, Arbogast said.  Continued...