North America Cable, Satellite & Telecom Services: AWS -3 Spectrum Auction: Verizon pays up for efficiency

Research evidence excerpt

North America Cable, Satellite & Telecom Services: AWS -3 Spectrum Auction: Verizon pays up for efficiency

Equity Research

North America Cable, Satellite & Telecom Services

29 June 2026

AWS -3 Spectrum Auction: Verizon

pays up for efficiency

Verizon dominated the AWS-3 auction in metros which drove North America Cable, Satellite & Telecom

most of the auction value, but TMUS picked up cheap and Services NEUTRAL

potentially useful geographic optionality; satellite North America Cable, Satellite &

participation appears to have been negligible but may be to Telecom Services

tough to extrapolate into future auctions. Kannan Venkateshwar +1 212 528 7054

kannan.venkat@barclays.com

Overview BCI, US

Auction 113 for AWS-3 spectrum was completed last week and generated over ~$3.5bn in gross Lauren Bonham

proceeds for an average price of $2.53/MHz-POP (vs $2.71/MHz-POP for paired licenses during +1 212 526 3856

the last auction for this band). The aggregate amount realized was not materially higher lauren.bonham@barclays.com

BCI, UScompared to the gross value realized last auction (~+4%), despite the prior auction having been

held a decade ago. The results were surprisingly skewed towards just one buyer, Verizon, which Viren Uchil

ended up contributing to ~90% of auction proceeds despite 16 other qualified bidders +1 (212) 526 7523

participating in the auction. viren.uchil@barclays.com

BCI, US

While this auction was relatively small, the results were closely watched because of potential Siyuan (Cindy) Huang, CFA

implications for the upper C-Band auction next year, as well as satellite operator interest in +1 212 526 7952

bidding for terrestrial wireless spectrum. In hindsight, satellite participation barely registered. siyuan.huang@barclays.com