Comcast Statement About 700 MHz Wireless Auction
PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 3 /PRNewswire/ — The following statement may be attributed to D'Arcy Rudnay, Senior Vice President, Comcast Corporation: — "Comcast Corporation has decided not to bid in the 700 MHz wireless auction.
Context & Ripple Effects
Comcast's decision closes out a month of waffling over the FCC's 700 MHz auction: AT&T had already said back in October that its own participation was uncertain (AT&T unsure about bidding), and cable's other major player made the same call the very same day (Time Warner won't bid either). The two biggest US cable operators are now formally on the sidelines of the spectrum sale.
The timing matters because Comcast has been under pressure on multiple fronts at once — a lawsuit and open criticism over its BitTorrent traffic handling through November, alongside its push to prove wireline still wins on speed via channel-bonding modems and a stated 160 Mbps target for 2008. Skipping the auction reads as a deliberate bet on upgrading cable plant rather than buying airwaves.
First-order effects
- Comcast keeps its capital out of the 700 MHz sale, committing the company to a wireline-first broadband strategy just as it faces neutrality lawsuits over BitTorrent throttling.
- With both Comcast and Time Warner abstaining on the same day, the pool of serious bidders shrinks before the January auction even opens.
Second-order effects
- Cable operators' collective absence shifts pricing dynamics toward whoever does bid — likely the big telcos — reducing the chance of a new entrant winning the open-access C-block and easing competitive pressure on incumbents.
Third-order effects
- If cable sits out spectrum markets as a class, US broadband competition hardens into a two-track structure: telcos building wireless assets they own, cable racing on DOCSIS upgrades it rents nobody — with regulators left judging intermodal competition rather than head-to-head rivalry.
The trend: US broadband is splitting into two camps — telcos buying spectrum, cable doubling down on wireline speed — and the 700 MHz auction is where the cable camp formally declined to cross over.