About this site
Spectrum Auction Economics is a public dataset and analytics site covering 15 FCC spectrum auctions — $220.23B in real auction proceeds, 2006 through 2026 — with interactive maps, per-bidder results, and cross-auction economics that aren't published together anywhere else.
Where the data comes from
Every number on this site traces to a public primary source. No figures are estimated, modeled, or filled in from memory.
| Auctions | Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 107, 110, 102, 103, 101, 105, 108, 113 | FCC Public Reporting System (auctiondata.fcc.gov) | Official per-license results CSVs |
| 1002 (Incentive Auction, forward) | FCC Public Reporting System (project 1000) | Phase-prefixed reports; forward auction only — the reverse (broadcaster) side is a different transaction type, deliberately out of scope |
| 66 (AWS-1), 73 (700 MHz) | Penn State CAPCP historical FCC auction archive | Structured workbooks; totals match FCC/press record exactly |
| 97 (AWS-3 2014-15) | FCC public notice DA-15-131A2 (PDF) | Extracted by word position; sums match the PDF's own printed total to the dollar |
Map boundaries are the FCC's own license-area definitions — PEA, CMA, BEA, REA, BTA, MTA MapInfo files from fcc.gov/oet/maps/areas — plus U.S. Census Bureau cartographic county boundaries. See theArea Types explorer for each scheme with direct FCC download links.
How it was verified
- Totals: every auction's gross proceeds, bidder count, and/or license count is cross-checked against independent public reporting — exact match or the discrepancy is documented. Auction 97's extraction is validated against the FCC PDF's own printed total row, to the dollar.
- Population: $/MHz-pop uses each auction's own FCC-scored population basis (the frozen per-market "pops" the auction was actually bid on), never re-based to a different Census year. For the modern PEA auctions this was verified market-by-market against the FCC's own market files — all 406 markets, exact.
- Bidder identities: the parent-company mapping (e.g. "Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless" → Verizon; DISH's Northstar/SNR designated entities — an FCC-litigated control finding) is editorial, and deliberately conservative: entities are only attributed on documented evidence. Shell companies without confirmation stay under their filing names, flagged as unconfirmed. Historical entities (SpectrumCo, MetroPCS, Cingular-era AT&T) are attributed as of their auction date, not retroactively relabeled.
- Inflation: cross-auction comparisons use CPI-U constant dollars (base 2025), alongside nominal — a 2008 dollar and a 2022 dollar are not the same thing.
Method notes worth knowing
- $/MHz-pop = net winning price ÷ (block bandwidth in MHz × market population). Bandwidth counts both directions of paired blocks (a 700 MHz "11+11" block is 22 MHz). Aggregates are population-weighted, not simple averages — an 82-person county PAL can't outvote New York.
- Unsold licenses stay visible. Licenses that received no winning bid (e.g. 35 in AWS-1, ~2,000 in CBRS) are recorded as unassigned, not dropped — demand shortfall is data.
- Multi-geography auctions (AWS-1, 700 MHz, AWS-3) mixed CMA/BEA/REA license areas in one proceeding; they're presented as sub-auctions per geography so maps and metrics stay honest.
What's next
The FCC's auction pipeline is active again: the Upper C-band auction (3.98–4.2 GHz, up to 180 MHz) is statutorily required to conclude by July 2027, with more federal spectrum identified for auction through 2029. This site will track new auctions as they happen — including round-by-round during live bidding — and the cross-auction economics will grow with each one.
Data is provided as-is for research and educational purposes, compiled entirely from public sources. This site is independent and not affiliated with the FCC. Nothing here is investment advice.