AT&T executive doubts $60 billion estimates for spectrum sale

A top AT&T executive said at a conference Wednesday he doubted that an upcoming wireless spectrum auction will raise $60 billion, as some have estimated.

Glenn Lurie, president and CEO of AT&T’s wireless business, said the company does not “think that’s realistic, we just don’t think that’s possible.”

{mosads}Analysts have predicted that the auction, where the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will buy wireless spectrum from broadcasters and sell it to wireless carriers, could bring in up to $60 billion in bids.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the net proceeds of the sale will fall somewhere between $10 billion and $40 billion. The Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition has released a report estimating that the auction will raise $60 to $80 billion.

But the success of the auction is dependent on whether broadcasters and carriers agree to participate. Sprint last week became the first carrier to say that it will not participate, instead focusing on building out its current infrastructure.

Lurie cited Sprint’s decision as one likely to influence the auction’s proceeds, and said that it could cause T-Mobile — which expected to compete with Sprint for spectrum set aside for small carriers — to lower its own spending.

“Obviously … Sprint has made a decision not to participate,” Lurie said at a Re/code conference. “The FCC’s put in some rules that I think are interesting when you consider that T-Mobile came out recently and said, ‘Well, we’ll spend up to $10 billion.’ Well, with Sprint not participating, I’m not sure they’re going to have to. So, we think that 60 is really unrealistic at this time and we’ll see what happens.”

The FCC is making efforts to bring participants to the table before the auction, which is scheduled to take place in March. Before then, it will host workshops and webinars on the auction’s complicated procedures. It will also hold a mock auction for companies that have been approved to participate.