AT&T, Dish, and T-Mobile spend billions on more 5G spectrum

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According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, AT&T, Dish, and T-Mobile dropped billions of dollars in the FCC's auction to acquire more 5G spectrum licenses in the 3.45 GHz to 3.55 GHz band.

AT&T spent $9 billion, followed by Dish at $7.3 billion, and T-Mobile at $2.9 billion. The auction had a notable absence from the company. Three Forty-Five Spectrum is one of the smaller players that can be seen on Light Reading's site.

This is the third-largest FCC auction to date, with total bids reaching over $22 billion.

The FCC hasn't publicly disclosed the winning bidders until now, but they did end the auction in November. The FCC's third-largest spectrum auction has a total of $22.50 billion in bids. The $80 billion C-band auction, which was half of which was contributed by Verizon, was the only one that topped this amount of spending.

Light Reading says that companies will have to deploy new radios on cell towers that can broadcast signals when using the 3.45 GHz band. Light Reading notes that the 3rd Generation Partnership Project's n77 technical standards cover 3.3 GHz to 4.2 GHz, which means that existing 5G smartphones already use this band.

The WSJ notes that the 3.45 GHz band is not likely to interfere with aircraft equipment. The FAA delayed the roll out of the 5G C-band services twice due to safety concerns.