Individual Bidders Flock to Auction

A coming government auction of wireless airwaves has attracted an unusually large number of individuals to an affair typically dominated by corporate giants such as AT&T and Verizon Communications. While such auctions usually draw a few outsiders, nearly 30 of the 104 applications submitted by this auction’s potential bidders are from individuals without corporate ties. No other auction in the past decade has drawn more than nine individuals, according to Federal Communications Commission records.

The individual bidders in the current auction include an elected official in California, a young Wisconsinite, and a retired school principal in Chicago. They all are asking for a 25% discount, an incentive that Congress encouraged the FCC to create more than two decades ago to attract new entrants to the wireless industry. The unusual number of individuals among 2016’s would-be bidders has raised questions within the FCC.