By the time bidding for US Personal Communications Services licences ended for the first day, the prices offered for the 10 nationwide franchises on offer totalled more than $196m with no licences awarded – the first round of bids was so high that it shocked both government officials and spectators, according to Dow Jones & Co: leading bids stood at $30m each for five licences, $10m each for four licences and $6,825,000 for the tenth one; the bidding process is extremely high-tech – except that bidders have to be present at a hotel ballroom in Washington to enter their bids on one of 20 computers, each shrouded behind blue curtains like polling booths – and bids are then carried over a high-speed telephone line to a computer in New York City; the bidding for the 10 licences had reached $265m by mid-day, with feverish bidding continuing.
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