Verizon has spent more than any other bidder on spectrum in the USA’s latest auction, in which priority access licences (PALs) for the CBRS band around 3.5 GHz were sold. The process ended almost two weeks ago and the FCC has now announced the identities of the successful companies, and their bids, with Verizon leading the table with total spend of almost $1.9bn – almost half of the total proceeds of $4.6bn. The investment was driven by the need to reach the midband sweet spot that combines reasonable coverage with a significant hike in average bit rates over 4G. Verizon has been very short of midband spectrum and forced to launch its first 5G services (fixed-only) in millimeter wave frequencies,…