AT&T Mobility CEO Glenn Lurie Calls FCC Auction Estimate of $60 Billion 'Unrealistic' (Video)

In August, the FCC said that it expects to raise between $60 billion and $80 billion from next year’s wireless spectrum auction. AT&T Mobility CEO Glenn Lurie thinks that estimate is way off base.

Talking with Ina Fried at the Code/Mobile conference at The Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay, Calif., Lurie said, “We don’t think that’s realistic.”

“We think that $60 [billion] is unrealistic at this time, and we’ll see what happens,” Lurie said. Why does he think that number sounds squishy? Well, earlier this month, Sprint said that it wouldn’t be participating in the auction, and the carriers have already spent a lot of money on acquiring spectrum.

It will be interesting to see what FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel has to say on Thursday. Rosenworcel is slated to be the closing speaker at Code/Mobile.

You can watch video of Lurie talking about the FCC auction below:

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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