Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
Get this: At this moment there is a spectrum auction happening not too far from where you are probably reading this. That is if you are reading this somewhere that is not “too far” from Canada, which is where that auction is happening.
Even better, that auction includes 700 MHz spectrum licenses similar to the ones that have been powering LTE launches, crazy advertising campaigns, outlandish merger-and acquisitions and plenty of “filing” with the Federal Communications Commission. Pretty exciting stuff, no?
No indeed.
You see, unlike the fun-time-club at the Federal Communications Commission, Canada’s spectrum overlord Industry Canada is keeping all of the happenings of said 700 MHz spectrum auction hush-hush. As in no daily updates on what company is bidding what amount of ridiculous Canadian money on slices of that oh-so-precious 700 MHz spectrum. What sort of world do we live in where I can write a statement about the FCC being the “fun-loving” one in a comparison?
Sad times indeed.
Industry Canada has decided that it will not release the names of the winning bidders until five days after the auction ends, which is expected to be sometime in March. Five days? What, are they going to wait for a PayPal transaction to close?
This is in contrast to the FCC’s handling of the 700 MHz auction, which included round-by-round updates that allowed daily analysis on what was happening. For true spectrum auction nerds, it was glorious.
While the rules for Canada’s 700 MHz spectrum auction have been known for months, it’s still a bit surprising to see such radio silence, especially considering that leading up to the proceedings Industry Canada was not shy about touting the consumer benefits it expected the auction to bring. All last year, Industry Canada shouted from the roof tops its plans to introduce more competition into that countries wireless market, shooting down deals that would have seen large operators take out smaller rivals and instituting rules for its auctions favoring new entrants. Mostly to the chagrin to established Canadian operators and taunted at by others.
Unfortunately, all of that touting and shouting did little to bring new entrants into the space, as smaller carriers continued to look for ways to bail, while the bidder lineup for the 700 MHz auction rapidly dwindled down to just a handful of usual suspects.
Luckily, Canadians are used to the occasional letdown:
(Too soon?)
This is 700 MHz spectrum people! Prime! Beachfront! You know, the good stuff! And only 10 companies all across Canada are in play to grab some? If any country seems ripe for the propagation characteristics inherent in the 700 MHz spectrum band, it would sure be Canada.
Perhaps it’s not a good thing that Industry Canada will not be releasing daily updates on the bidding. With only a handful of players involved, I am guessing it would be sort of like watching BlackBerry trying to find its direction.
Alas, all is not lost. The FCC next week is planning to begin Auction 96, which includes 10 megahertz of spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band known as the H-Block, with plans to announce leading bids a mere 10 minutes after each round is completed. Sure, with just 10 megahertz on the line way up in the 1.9 GHz band and many of the big names bowing out of the proceedings, it may not draw the 11-digit amounts we saw with the 700 MHz auction or even match the amount expected to come from Canada’s 700 MHz auction, but at least we will have the ability to keep up-to-date on the proceedings.
It should also be noted that even with most players opting out of the H-Block auction, there are still 34 qualified bidders set to duke it out. Plus, Dish Network has said it would bid a minimum of $1.5 billion for the licenses, which should guarantee at least a 10-digit haul for the government.
And later this year, the FCC is expected to conduct the AWS-3 auction, which many that are bypassing the H-Block auction have said they plan to participate in. And then of course, we have the mother-of-all spectrum auctions scheduled for mid-2015 with the 600 MHz incentive auction.
Despite Canada’s best efforts, I will still try to enjoy its 700 MHz spectrum auction. But let’s hope the country learns from past mistakes and realizes that while it may never be able to drive real interest from bidders, it can at least derive meaningless interest from spectrum nerds.
OK, enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. And now for some extras:
–Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg is reportedly in the running to head up Microsoft following the scheduled departure of current Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. (Ballmer is rumored to be heading back to his fraternity having made just enough money at Microsoft to pay for the keg for next-weeks pre-Super Bowl party.)
Not that heading up one of the world’s largest companies would not be an honor for most people, but for some reason it seems being named CEO of Microsoft is akin to being named head coach for the Washington “Pro-Football” team. Sure, you are the “head” man on campus, but you gotta always be looking behind to make sure your decisions are not being usurped.
–Finally, an interesting note in the FCC’s decision to move forward with Band Class 12 interoperability was a clause related to the percent of devices that must be made available which are compatible with the lower A-, B- and C-Block licenses in the 700 MHz band. According to the FCC:
“Memory or color finish variations on a single device shall not be considered separate unique SKUs.”
What, what, what!?!
Memory and color finishes are the cornerstone to carriers and device makers claims to rolling out “new” devices.
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at dmeyer@rcrwireless.com.
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