Verizon won spectrum worth $45.45 billion in the C Band auction, to build itself a nationwide footprint of midband airwaves for 5G. That sum is nearly double the amount spent by the second-highest bidder, AT&T.
Forty-five billion dollars is as much as the state of New Jersey’s proposed budget for the coming year. As much as the entire U.S. transportation sector received in the last coronavirus relief bill. More than the entire annual GDP of countries like Cameroon, Tunisia or Paraguay. More than five times the amount that Verizon spent on Yahoo and AOL combined.
