The FCC closed the seemingly endless Auction 73 late this afternoon after no bids were submitted in Round 261. The Auction raised $19.592 billion in 28 days, but the winners of the 700 MHz licenses still remain a mystery. The FCC said it expects to reveal the secret identities of the high bidders in the next 10 days. There’s still no word on the fate of the D-block shared public safety/commercial license, which failed to reach its minimum reserve price. (See story to follow.)

Anyone who thought the current sorry state of economic affairs in the U.S. would produce an equally sorry Auction 73 can toss those doubts outside. Though all excitement surrounding the auction dissipated weeks ago, it’s kept chugging along, entering its 210th round today, raising $19.6 billion, and beating 2006’s AWS auction handily on both counts. Auction 66 raised $13.9 billion and went 161 rounds. Despite the 700 MHz auction’s longevity, it’s bound to wrap up soon (you’ve heard us say that before…).  more…

Time Warner Telecom is changing its name.

more…

Following my recent article and column on priority text messaging, I received several emails from companies wanting to make their text messaging platforms known or suggesting alternative emergency provisions built into SMS. This included operators’ use of First Delivery Attempt (FDA), a cost-savings measure that tries to circumvent the SMS center to immediately deliver text messages, as well as companies instead focused on improving the viability of these SMS centers.

From the readers, however, rather than focusing on what service providers could do, they focused instead on what they should do. more…

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to get our first inkling of whether all of this talk of open networks is real or just a bunch of hogwash. On Thursday, Apple will give the world its first peek at the iPhone software developer’s kit (SDK). And on May 19, Verizon Wireless will release its own open-network developer’s kit — not so much an SDK as a set of specifications that would allow third-party device makers and app developers to shoehorn their wares onto VZW’s network. more…

The last of the boutique MVNOs continues to maintain a grip on solvency, but just barely. As MocoNews reported, Helio saw its net loss jump from $192 million to $327 million between 2006 and 2007. Yet its revenues have more than tripled and its subscribers base continues to grow, settling at 180,000 by the end of 2007 (click here for the full Helio report in EarthLink’s annual 10K filing with the SEC). The more Helio grows, the more it’s costing its parents, SK Telecom and the already financially harried EarthLink. more…

There’s a lot more to say about this week’s OFC NFOEC optical trade show (in addition to all this). While I continue to sift through my notes, please enjoy my traditional list of disembodied statements heard at the show:

“TV has no latency problem. If you lose an hour, you don’t miss that much.”
–Bob Metcalfe, partner, Polaris Ventures

“Video is the new black.” – Donn Lee, network architect, Facebook, projecting his company’s need for terabit routers by 2011

“Over the next five years, all the high-speed links out of a computer will go optical.” – Robert Zona, marketing director, optical platform division, Intel

“It’s been a difficult road for Alcatel Lucent. They’re the poster child today for why consolidation isn’t easy.” –Paul Bonenfant, vice president of equity research, Morgan Keegan

“Because the capital markets are so broad, [component manufacturers] are always able to find another group of guys to reload their balance sheets, and they subsequently get wiped out. It’s now becoming somewhat entertaining.” –Todd Koffman, managing director of equity research, Raymond James

“You’d have to be on drugs to believe that.” –Andrew Schmidt, partner, Nyquist Capital, on projections for a $900-million 40G market in 2013

“I got the message. You need it. We’re working on it.” –John D’Ambrosia, components technology scientist, Force10 Networks, on 100G industry standards

“The FCC made a big decision last week. They fined the makers of NYPD Blue $1 million for showing a naked woman from the rear in a shower. So the people in Washington are busy dealing with very important issues.” –Reed Hundt, former chairman, FCC

“Let me put the ‘but’ in.” – Dave Clark, vice president, optical and defense products, Sierra Monolithics, showing a slide reading “40G/100G is exciting, but…”

While none of the bidders in the 700 MHz auction are making any noise, one U.S. Senator is. Arkansas Democrat Mark Pryor is lambasting the FCC, and specifically chairman Kevin Martin’s handling of the auction, despite the $19.5 billion in funds so far raised in difficult economic times. According to a story by Broadcasting & Cable, Pryor told a room full of broadcasters that the auction was a disaster, benefiting the major Tier I vendors to the determent of smaller operators. more…

With less than three days left in February, there is still no sign of Apple’s software development kit (SDK) for the iPhone, promised to us by CEO Steve Jobs himself back in October of last year. The rumor reported in Business Week was that it will be delayed by one to three weeks, although Apple has yet to confirm a new launch date or offer an explanation for the holdup. Knowing Apple and its penchant for doing the unexpected (read: anything it wants), it’s probably in no hurry and is banking on its customers agreeing the iPhone SDK will be worth the wait. more…

It was Comcast on the podium defending itself from charges of P2P blocking this week, but it was service providers of all shapes and sizes left wondering if the FCC and Congress would soon be telling them how to manage their networks. more…