Treasury
3-MO 3.82% -1bp 6-MO 3.98% +1bp 1-YR 4.04% unch 2-YR 4.23% +1bp 3-YR 4.30% +1bp 5-YR 4.38% +1bp 7-YR 4.52% +1bp 10-YR 4.68% +1bp 20-YR 5.22% +1bp 30-YR 5.21% +1bp 3-MO 3.82% -1bp 6-MO 3.98% +1bp 1-YR 4.04% unch 2-YR 4.23% +1bp 3-YR 4.30% +1bp 5-YR 4.38% +1bp 7-YR 4.52% +1bp 10-YR 4.68% +1bp 20-YR 5.22% +1bp 30-YR 5.21% +1bp 3-MO 3.82% -1bp 6-MO 3.98% +1bp 1-YR 4.04% unch 2-YR 4.23% +1bp 3-YR 4.30% +1bp 5-YR 4.38% +1bp 7-YR 4.52% +1bp 10-YR 4.68% +1bp 20-YR 5.22% +1bp 30-YR 5.21% +1bp 3-MO 3.82% -1bp 6-MO 3.98% +1bp 1-YR 4.04% unch 2-YR 4.23% +1bp 3-YR 4.30% +1bp 5-YR 4.38% +1bp 7-YR 4.52% +1bp 10-YR 4.68% +1bp 20-YR 5.22% +1bp 30-YR 5.21% +1bp 3-MO 3.82% -1bp 6-MO 3.98% +1bp 1-YR 4.04% unch 2-YR 4.23% +1bp 3-YR 4.30% +1bp 5-YR 4.38% +1bp 7-YR 4.52% +1bp 10-YR 4.68% +1bp 20-YR 5.22% +1bp 30-YR 5.21% +1bp 3-MO 3.82% -1bp 6-MO 3.98% +1bp 1-YR 4.04% unch 2-YR 4.23% +1bp 3-YR 4.30% +1bp 5-YR 4.38% +1bp 7-YR 4.52% +1bp 10-YR 4.68% +1bp 20-YR 5.22% +1bp 30-YR 5.21% +1bp
US Treasury par yield curve · Jul 30 · Source: U.S. Treasury
Friday, July 31, 2026
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Auction 115

The Upper C-band auction has a date, and 3,248 licences go on the block on 27 April 2027

Money & World
The Editorial Team ·
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The auction has a date.

Bidding on the Upper C-band opens on 27 April 2027. The Federal Communications Commission filed a notice on Friday morning seeking comment on how that auction, designated Auction 115, should be run, and the notice sets out an inventory of 3,248 new flexible-use licences in the 3.98 to 4.14 GHz band across the contiguous United States and the District of Columbia. Comments close on 24 August and replies on 8 September.

The spectrum is offered unpaired, as eight 20-megahertz blocks in each partial economic area, for a total of 160 megahertz. A further 20 megahertz at 4.14 to 4.16 GHz is held back as a guard band and is not for sale. Licences run 15 years and are renewable.

How the money is proposed to work

The Commission's economics and wireless bureaus propose an ascending clock phase for generic blocks, followed by an assignment phase that settles which frequencies each winner actually gets.

Prices are tiered three ways and the spread is the striking part. A minimum opening bid would be calculated at $0.03 per MHz-pop for the 50 largest markets, $0.006 for markets 51 to 100, and $0.003 for every market below that. Upfront payments, which are refundable deposits that set how much a bidder is allowed to bid on at once, come in at half those figures, with a floor of $500 a block. Each $10 of upfront payment buys one bidding unit.

Designated entity discounts carry over from the Report and Order the Commission adopted on 24 July. An applicant averaging no more than $55m of gross revenue over five years bids with a 15 percent credit, one under $20m with 25 percent, and a rural provider with fewer than 250,000 subscribers gets 15 percent if it is not already claiming the small business credit. The bureaus propose to cap the total discount at $25m for small businesses and $10m for rural providers. A winner that defaults would owe the shortfall plus an additional 15 percent.

The condition attached to every licence

This band is not empty. Satellite operators hold it, and the Commission modified their licences and market access authorisations in the Report and Order to clear the contiguous United States for terrestrial use. The notice points bidders at that order for the clearing conditions, and it is explicit that the licensees carry the costs of clearing.

Bidders will also be working blind on each other. The notice proposes that the markets an applicant selected, the size of its upfront payment and its bidding eligibility all stay sealed until bidding closes. After each round the system would publish aggregate demand, the last posted price and the next clock price, and nothing about who is asking.

The document: Federal Communications Commission, Auction of Flexible-Use Licenses in the Upper C-Band for Next-Generation Wireless Services Scheduled for April 27, 2027; Comment Sought on Competitive Bidding Procedures for Auction 115, proposed rule and proposed auction procedures, 47 CFR Parts 1 and 27, AU Docket No. 26-191, DA 26-769, FR ID 359891, FR document 2026-15725, filed for public inspection on 31 July 2026 at 8:45 a.m. Eastern. The complete public inspection text was downloaded and read here; no fetch-tool summary was relied on and every figure below was matched against the document. The document states it is a summary of the Auction 115 Comment Public Notice released on 24 July 2026, that it builds on the Upper C-band Report and Order, FCC 26-46, released 24 July 2026 with publication in the Federal Register still pending, and that comments are due on or before 24 August 2026 with reply comments due on or before 8 September 2026. On the inventory it states that Auction 115 will offer 3,248 new flexible-use licences in the 3.98 to 4.14 GHz portion of the Upper C-band throughout the contiguous United States subject to clearing requirements, that 160 megahertz will be offered unpaired in eight 20-megahertz blocks by partial economic area across PEAs 1 to 41, 43 to 211, 213 to 263, 265 to 297, 299 to 359 and 361 to 411, that the 20 megahertz at 4.14 to 4.16 GHz is a guard band and not available for auction, and that licences carry 15-year renewable terms. It states the format is an ascending clock phase for generic blocks followed by an assignment phase for frequency-specific assignments, and that bidding is tentatively scheduled to commence on 27 April 2027. On prices it states that minimum opening bids would be calculated for each 20-megahertz block at $0.03 per MHz-pop for PEAs 1 to 50, $0.006 per MHz-pop for PEAs 51 to 100 and $0.003 per MHz-pop for all other PEAs, and that upfront payments would be $0.015, $0.003 and $0.0015 per MHz-pop on the same three tiers subject to a minimum of $500 per block, equal to approximately half the proposed minimum opening bids, with one bidding unit per $10 of upfront payment. On designated entities it states that the Report and Order set the small business thresholds at average annual gross revenues over the preceding five years not exceeding $55m for a 15 percent bidding credit and not exceeding $20m for a 25 percent bidding credit, and a 15 percent rural service provider credit for entities with fewer than 250,000 combined subscribers in primarily rural areas that are not also claiming a small business credit, with proposed caps of $25m on small business credits and $10m on rural service provider credits. It proposes an additional default payment of 15 percent of the applicable winning bid, within the 3 to 20 percent range the rules allow. On incumbents it states that the Commission modified the licences and market access authorisations of incumbent Fixed Satellite Service operators to clear the band in the contiguous United States, and directs potential bidders to the Report and Order for the clearing conditions including licensees' responsibility for the costs of clearing. On information policy it states that the PEAs an applicant selects, the amount of any upfront payment, an applicant's bidding eligibility and any other information that might reveal a bidder's identity would not be made public until after bidding closes, and that after each round the system would disclose aggregate demand, the posted price of the last completed round and the clock price for the next round..

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