WASHINGTON-Verizon Wireless, which has spent almost $9 billion for personal communications services licenses, asked the Federal Communications Commission last week to delay the March 6 auction of 700 MHz licenses until September.
“The 700 MHz auction should be postponed. There remains considerable uncertainty about the process for the auction, the availability of the 700 MHz band itself, and the availability of alternative spectrum. As a matter of sound spectrum management policy, this spectrum should not be auctioned until these issues are resolved,” said John T. Scott, Verizon Wireless vice president and deputy general counsel for regulatory law, in a letter sent late Thursday.
The FCC is asking for comments on the letter to be submitted by Wednesday.
If Verizon’s request is granted, it would be the third time the FCC has delayed an auction originally required by Congress to occur before Sept. 30, 2000.
The 700 MHz spectrum is being made available with the transition of TV broadcasters to digital technology. Broadcasters were given an extra channel to convert to digital signals and were supposed to give back their “analog” channel by 2007 or when 85 percent of the households in their broadcast area can receive digital signals, whichever is later.
Some of the spectrum to be returned has already been auctioned off to guard-band managers and another 30 megahertz is set to be auctioned on March 6.
