FCC filing shows potential March 29 start date for complex auction proceedings
The Federal Communications Commission appears committed to beginning its highly anticipated 600 MHz incentive auction during the first quarter of next year.
According to the Broadcast Law Blog, the FCC noted a March 29, 2016, start date for the “Broadcast Incentive Auction,” with the documents pertaining to the plans having been circulated among FCC commissioners on June 25. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has repeatedly stated he expects the auction to begin during the first quarter of next year despite a number of recent issues that could cause delays.
The FCC last week abruptly dropped a vote on rules tied to the incentive auction process that was initially scheduled for its July 16 meeting, but has since been rescheduled for FCC’s Aug. 6 meeting.
The FCC had originally looked to schedule the 600 MHz auction this year, but was forced to push off the proceedings following a lawsuit filed by the National Association of Broadcasters and general complexity of the process. The NAB lawsuit was eventually thrown out, but the auction’s reverse- and forward-auction components remain a challenge.
Wheeler earlier this year spoke at the annual NAB event in an attempt to drum up support from television broadcasters to participate in the proceedings by giving up some of their spectrum holdings in return for financial compensation. Wheeler said broadcasters agreeing to participate in the reverse-auction process are likely set for a significant financial gain, citing the more than $41 billion in net proceeds generated from the recent AWS-3 spectrum auction.
On June 25, Wheeler circulated a draft Order on Reconsideration that maintains the previously stated 30 megahertz of spectrum reserved for those entities with sparse sub-1 GHz spectrum holdings and a planned auction start during the first quarter of next year. The set-aside rule, which was initially put forth last year in the initial Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, is expected to have the greatest impact on the mobile industry’s two largest players – AT&T and Verizon Wireless – although the actual impact is up for debate.
The decision is seen as a blow to the efforts of T-Mobile US and some trade groups that were requesting at least 40 megahertz of spectrum be placed outside of the bidding reach of AT&T and Verizon Wireless.
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