So Maybe Verizon is Bidding Against Itself

After round 40 of the Federal Communications Commission's auction of 700 MHz airwaves, Verizon might be bidding against itself, in a sense. Observers say it is possible for Verizon to bid directly on each of the eight regional allocations that make up the national C block. And if any contestant has the highest bid in a region, it wins the spectrum even if some other entity has the highest overall bid for the entire C block.

In this scenario Verizon would simply have to ensure that its regional bids were high enough to top the amount any other player submitted for the entire national spectrum. Clever.