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Found out about this company through an office cold call from one of their sales guys. He was very unassuming yet very knowledgeable; he just wanted to get me the information for me make my own decision in my own time. Definitely left me interested to know more about their technology and company.
So their stock has been on a tear since mid-December. (2.00 - 3.60). I have yet to DD this company for myself, but just wanted to throw it out there to you guys that either are already familiar with this company or have more time than I to DD.
I believe this wimax technology is the same broadband frequency that Google is trying to win an auction of with a huge chunk of change. I recall it also being speculated that Apple may be in-it with Google with some $$ to win the auction. Apple's use of the frequency for services on their iphone is limited by contract with AT&T though. Please correct my info if you know it is wrong or misleading. Thanks.
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I found an article to the FCC Wireless Auction. It begins Jan 24. Towerstream has filed an application to bid for a chunk. Google is mentioned in article.
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Good luck surf. I'm trying to unload some dead weight in my portfolio to play with this one instead. If the recent volume continues, you should have no problem getting your 10-20%.
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Bidding Countdown Peeking Into The Spectrum Auction Elizabeth Woyke 12.31.07, 6:00 AM ET
Related Quotes CVX 94.61 + 1.15
EBAY 32.84 + 0.35
GOOG 685.33 + 0.14
QCOM 37.90 - 0.49
T 41.39 + 0.39
TWER 3.60 + 0.40
VZ 43.41 + 0.20
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If you're a 150-person start-up going up against the likes of AT&T, Verizon and Google in the upcoming auction of wireless spectrum, you look for any advantage possible.
Towerstream (nasdaq: TWER - news - people ), a tiny Middletown, R.I.-based fixed-wireless Internet provider, is hoping telecom lawyer Dee Herman will give it a leg up against the competition. Herman, a principal at Bennet & Bennet, is part of a cottage industry of lawyers, consultants, engineers and economists that companies are hiring to boost their chances in the closely watched Federal Communications Commission auction that could redefine the telecommunications industry.
At stake is a premium slice of 700 MHz bandwidth that is being freed up as analog TV stations transition to a digital format. Bidders consider the swath of spectrum, which could be used for mobile television or advanced data services for cellphones, so valuable that some have assembled war rooms to plot their strategy. Experts say larger companies are more likely to have in-house teams that assess the value of particular slices of spectrum and come up with different bidding scenarios Those with fewer resources are hiring outside consultants and lawyers, who may, in turn, work with bankers or economists to devise strategies. Even Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ), which has set up a war room at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, is consulting with auction experts and game theorists to gain an edge over the competition.
Preparation is expected to heat up over the next week because Jan. 4 is the final day to resubmit applications to the FCC. In mid-December, the commission announced that 170 applicants, including AT&T (nyse: T - news - people ), Verizon (nyse: VZ - news - people ), Qualcomm (nasdaq: QCOM - news - people )Alltel (nyse: AT - news - people ) and Chevron (nyse: CVX - news - people ), had incomplete applications. The FCC said applications from Google, Towerstream and 94 other companies were complete.
Consultants and lawyers usually file the applications on behalf of companies. They also get tapped for a multitude of other tasks, including supervising auction deposits and payments and deymystifying FCC regulations, such as the FCC's anti-collusion rule, which forbids discussions among bidders. Consultants and lawyers also may help craft business plans, determining, for instance, how particular licenses complement a firm's projects or other spectrum holdings, how much a particular slice of spectrum is worth and what an appropriate bidding strategy would be. They can even bid for clients--by phone or online--during the auction. Should a client win a license, they frequently step in and file additional forms and disclosures to the FCC.
These outside consultants describe their role as streamlining a somewhat Byzantine process. "The process of bidding, looking at results and strategizing with our clients to figure out their next move can be constant, consuming and all-encompassing," says Herman, Towerstream's outside legal counsel, who is also representing several other bidders interested in different geographic areas. Some clients, he says, enjoy the frenzy and get intimately involved in the details; others prefer to have updates e-mailed to them.
Software providers are jumping into the auction game, too. Comsearch, an Ashburn, Va.-based software maker, offers a line of auction products. One software product called AuctionPlanner costs between $500 and $2,000 and is designed to help companies research spectrum bids via spreadsheets and maps. For instance, someone interested in a particular regional band could look up the population of that market and see which TV stations are currently operating there. The information helps bidders estimate how easy or difficult the transition from TV to their own planned services might be, says Laura Fontaine, a Comsearch director.
Experts differ on the advantages of outside help but agree that the real payoff may simply be saving time in what can be a weeks-long process. In spectrum auctions, bidding stays open until no new bids are received, at which point the entire auction ends. That helps ensure no one cuts in and outbids someone at the last minute, similar to an eBay (nasdaq: EBAY - news - people ) auction. It also means serious competitors must keep a close eye on the auction until the end.
Compounding the complexity, FCC auctions tend to begin slowly, with two to three rounds per day, then ramp up to as many as eight to 14 rounds. A smaller spectrum auction held last fall with 168 bidders went 161 rounds over 29 days. The 700 MHz auction is expected to last longer, given thee greater number of participants and the higher perceived value of the spectrum.
Despite the plethora of options, many players will probably go it alone. The FCC says it has taken pains to make the auction process easy to navigate. A Jan. 22 mock auction is scheduled to familiarize participants with the bidding software, which has been fine-tuned over the past two years and includes a section of frequently asked questions. Like the real auction, the mock auction will have anonymous bidding, which means companies will know the amount of the highest bid and whether they submitted it, but not who they're bidding against. Limiting information in this way could help level the playing field, experts say.
In the end, with a reserve price of $4.6 billion on the coveted "C" block of spectrum, which could support a new nationwide wireless network, and minimum opening bids of up to $59 million on smaller bands, money may trump strategy anyway.
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Agreed Surf. I was just about to post that Forbes article. I'm strategizing my portfolio at the moment to get into this TWER, but there was no way I was going to pull the 'chute on a few of my positions today. I doubt Monday will be much better, but Tuesday maybe?
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Oh, just to add....... Getting slammed here in the Bay Area with a massive storm right now. Our office lost power for most of the morning, but some of us were still able to be productive with our laptops with battery. With WiMAX, we'd still even be connected to the internet and probably even be able to make VOIP phone calls. I'm no tech junkie and wont claim to know half the least about this WiMAX stuff, but there has got to be some value there, .....and I think these "big boy" companies in on this auction agree.
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