FCC opens AWS-3 spectrum auction
June 3, 2026

By Chris Forrester



The FCC has opened the important AWS-3 auction of frequencies, the first spectrum auction in four years, with two rounds taking place on June 2nd.

The AWS-3 auction offers 200 5G-grade spectrum licences in mostly local markets. The licence areas included in this auction are home to over 100 million consumers across 48 states, two US territories, and the Gulf of America. They include major cities such as New York, Chicago, Boston, Tampa, and Charlotte.


The frequencies are in the 1695-1710 MHz, 1755-1780 MHz, and 2155-2180 MHz bands. The auction makes over 1.4 billion MHz-POPs (Megahertz Population) available for bidding – a calculation made by multiplying the bandwidth by the population covered by the licences.

These are not new licences as they were initially offered back in 2014 but for one reason or another were not taken up.

The FCC is pushing for greater adoption of 5G (and 6G) take-up and a push to increase available spectrum to 800 MHz by 2034.

Chairman Brendan Carr said: “Finally! The FCC is back in the game. Spectrum auctions are the lifeblood of licensed wireless service, and it has been far too long since the FCC has run an auction. Today, we are kicking off a vitally important auction to pump more spectrum into the marketplace. There is a reason why the first item the Commission voted on at my first meeting as Chairman was to get the process going for this very auction. More spectrum means more building, lower prices, and stronger competition. The FCC’s Build America Agenda is restoring America’s leadership in wireless.”

Equity analyst Sam McHugh from BNP Paribas, in his report to clients, said: “The first round raised $55 million of total proceeds across all licences, or about 2 percent of the total bids these licences received in the original AWS-3 auction. The critical thing in these early rounds is how many bidders there are for each licence in the larger markets. After the second round, there are an average of 3.5 bidders for each licence in markets with at least 1 million people. We suspect these are the three carriers, plus either SpaceX or EchoStar. The key thing to watch for over the next few days is how sticky this demand in the large markets is. If demand quickly falls from four bidders to two, for example, it will signal that auction prices may end up lower than expected.”

“It is too early to have much of a view,” said McHugh. “Demand in large markets after the first two rounds suggests all the carriers are bidding, as we expected. Perhaps most curious is that there are three bidders in the two markets that many expect only SpaceX to want (because the Big Three carriers can’t use these two licences with their existing network equipment). This could be a sign that the carriers would prefer to warehouse these licences than see them end up in SpaceX’s hands.”

Three rounds of bidding will take place today, June 3rd.