POPs, equal to one megahertz of spectrum that can reach one person in the country. Given that the United States now has a population of 292 million and that cellular service typically uses 30 megahertz, a fully national service (including Alaska and Hawaii) would require 8,760 mil- lion megahertz POPs. The price per megahertz POP for each successive FCC auction is shown in table 7-2.37 These prices first surged in the C auction, which allowed eligible "small entities" to defer payments over time. Many of these winning bidders subsequently defaulted. The peak prices were realized in the C and F re-auction, the results of which were subsequently nullified by a court ruling that the major defaulting original winning bidder, Next Wave, could not be stripped of its spectrum. The exuberant financial markets propelled the value of spectrum to $4.19 per megahertz POP in that auction, but stock and spectrum prices have re- ceded substantially since then. In recent activity, Next Wave has been selling much of its spectrum to other wireless operators. The price of a very large share of this spectrum, which was sold to Cingular in August 2003, was approximately $1.60 per megahertz POP, or very close to the price of $1.33 per megahertz POP The Rapid Growth of Wireless Telecommunications Table 7-2. Average Price per Megahertz POP for FCC Broadband PCS Auctions Net revenues Net revenues Auction (billions of per Megahertz number Auction name Date started dollars) December 1994 7.034 December 1995 9.270 C Reauction July 1996 0.904 D, E, F August 1996 2.523 C, D, E, F Reauction March 1999 0.412 C, F Reauction December 2000 16.857 Source: Auction data for auctions 4, 5, 10, 11, and 22 from FCC, Fifth Annual Report on the State of Wireless Competition, table 1B; data for auction 35 from Federal Communications Commission Public Notice, C and F Block Broadband PCS Auction Closes; Winning Bidders Announced; Down Payments Due February 12, 2001, FCC Forms 601 and 602 Due February 12, 2001; Ten-Day Petition to Deny Period, DA. realized du