[iptrans]

In telecommunications redlining is used to carve out profitable areas to serve and abandoning others.

It doesn't matter how fair the bidding and/or selection process is, you'll only end up with service in the profitable areas anyways. The bidding winner will most likely in most places be the incumbent, since they have a leg up.

A similar concept is gerrymandering where you manipulate district boundaries to get the desired election results.