WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week delayed the auction of commercial licenses in the 700 MHz band, while proceeding with plans to auction licenses for guard-band managers and proposing service rules for public-safety uses on the same band.
The FCC originally intended to hold two auctions for the commercial spectrum at about the same time, but last week’s split means guard-band managers likely will be decided first.
Commercial auction delay
Three of the five FCC members agreed to delay the 700 MHz auction until March 6.
“It is undisputed that factors surrounding this spectrum, including the incumbency of the UHF television broadcasters in this band, make bidder planning for this auction unusually complex … We are aware of no industry party or member of Congress who oppose the industry request or rationale,” said FCC Chairman William Kennard.
Kennard could barely muster a majority of the commission to agree with him. FCC Commissioners Harold Furchtgott-Roth and Gloria Tristani said the delay violated the law.
“We cannot support today’s decision to delay the 700 MHz auction until March 2001. This action is in stark disregard of this agency’s statutory obligation to ensure that all proceeds of such bidding are deposited … not later than Sept. 30, 2000 … No spectrum or fiscal policy consequence, no letters from members of Congress, and no interpretation of the overall statutory scheme can overcome the commission’s clear obligation to proceed with this auction consistent with the statute,” said Tristani and Furchtgott-Roth.
This is the third time the FCC has delayed the auction of licenses being returned as TV broadcasters transition to digital service.
The FCC plans to auction two licenses in each of six different regions. One license is for a pair of 10-megahertz slices and another license is for a pair of five-megahertz slices.
The wireless industry urged the FCC and convinced members of the House telecommunications subcommittee to exert pressure to delay the auction until relocation rules can be further defined.
“This pause creates the opportunity to coordinate the myriad of issues surrounding this block of spectrum. Wireless services need spectrum, but Congress cannot treat the sale of spectrum as a quick fix for budget shortfalls … New technology needs a highway on which to ride, and we can’t plan for that if we only get a little bit of asphalt at a time,” said Thomas E. Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.
David Freedman, North American wireless analyst for Bear, Stearns & Co., said delaying the auction for six months was positive, but a delay that lasted years would be negative.
The balanced budget act requires broadcasters to give back one of the two channels they were given for digital transition in 2007 and when 85 percent of the homes in their broadcast area have a digital receiver. But Congress also told the FCC to auction off a portion of the spectrum this year and deposit the estimated $2.6 billion received in the U.S. Treasury before Sept. 30.
This put the FCC in the middle of two of its constituencies-the wireless industry and TV broadcasters.
The wireless industry would prefer the FCC set out actual procedures for broadcasters to relocate instead of leaving broadcasters in the driver’s seat in the relocation negotiations.
It is hoped that by delaying the auction, the FCC can come to terms with some rules that will make it easier for the wireless industry and broadcasters to reach an agreement, but up to now most broadcasters have balked at such notions.
It is unlikely Congress will address such an agreement since a new Congress convenes in January and the auction is slated to begin a few months later.
Verizon Wireless, the nation’s largest provider, which had called for the auction to be held in the summer of 2001, said the delay would be meaningless unless the agency acted to improve the relocation situation.
Short forms for the commercial 700 MHz auction are now due on Feb. 2.
Guard-band auction goes forward
A proponent of the guard-band manager concept as a way to gain more spectrum for private wireless, Mark E. Crosby, filed his application at the deadline on Aug. 1.
“One of [the Industrial Telecommunications Association’s] critical strategic objectives is to pursue FCC actions that result in favorable spectrum allocation decisions that benefit the private wireless industry … We realistically had no choice other than to plan to participate in this auction as ITA’s leadership takes its private-wireless advocacy quite seriously, and Access Spectrum was formed specifically to be the potential guard-band manager licensee entity,” said Crosby.
Access Spectrum L.L.C. is a separate entity from ITA, of which Crosby is president and chief executive officer. After the auction is completed, a decision will be made as to how Crosby will split his time.
ITA, which is a frequency coordinator, will provide spectrum-management infrastructure for Access Spectrum.
The Personal Communications Industry Association, which also represents the private wireless industry and is a frequency coordinator, did not apply to participate in the auction.
It is unknown whether the American Mobile Telecommunications Association, which represents the specialized mobile radio industry and recently applied to take over the frequency coordination duties from the American Trucking Association, has applied to participate in the guard-band auction. AMTA has secured the Internet domain name rights to guardbandmanager.org, .net, and .com. Calls to AMTA were not returned.
The FCC said 22 applications were filed but that the status of those applications is confidential.
FCC proposes rules for public-safety interoperability spectrum
The FCC has tentatively concluded the Project 25 Phase I standard be adopted for nationwide interoperability.
More than 10 percent of the 24 megahertz of public-safety spectrum has been set aside for interoperability.
Project 25 Phase I calls for FDMA technology using 12.5 kilohertz of spectrum be deployed with a migration path to 6.25 kilohertz to be developed.
Applicants would be allowed to aggregate four contiguous 6.25-kilohertz channels to form one 25-kilohertz channel.
The FCC proposed not to mandate trunking on all 32 available interoperability channels, but said trunking would be permitted on up to 10 interoperability channels on a secondary basis.
Regional planning committees will oversee the channels only if states choose not to administer them.
Most of the FCC’s proposed rules come from the recommendations of the its Public Safety National Coordination Committee that was released in February.
A petition for reconsideration from L.M. Ericsson regarding the guard-band channels has been deferred, the FCC said.
