WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week officially delayed the auctions for the 700 MHz band to Sept. 6. The auctions had been originally scheduled for June.
The commission plans to hold two auctions for the spectrum: one for commercial use and one for guard bands designed to protect public-safety operations from interference.
In the commercial auction for 30 megahertz of spectrum, participants will bid on two licenses in six economic areas. One license will be a block of 20 megahertz (a pair of 10-megahertz blocks), and one block of 10 megahertz (a pair of five-megahertz blocks). The FCC will allow bidders to win both licenses in each area. This auction was first slated to start May 10, but the FCC on March 17 delayed it to June 7 after preliminary concerns were raised.
The second auction is for the newly created guard bands. This auction was slated to start June 14.
The auctions have been delayed to give bidders more time to prepare, the FCC said.
The FCC should give auction participants some guidance on what, if anything, it intends to do to help clear the band of the almost 100 incumbent broadcasters, said Brian Fontes, senior vice president for policy and administration at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.
The Personal Communications Industry Association also hopes the FCC “will use this time to examine ways to ensure that incumbent television stations relinquish their spectrum to the auction winners in a timely manner,” said Don Vasek, PCIA director of government relations.
While he does not believe the delay will help anyone, Mark E. Crosby does think the commission should clarify how it intends to get the band cleared. Crosby is president of the Industrial Telecommunications Association and is expected to participate in the guard-band auction.
FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth disagreed with the delay, saying only Congress could delay the auction. “If outside parties have lobbied the FCC to have the auction date changed, I am quite confident they will also have lobbied Congress. If there is a compelling reason to change the date, I am confident that Congress can make that determination on its own and find a legislative solution. If Congress fails to change the law, then we all must execute it as written regardless of the spectrum or fiscal policy consequences,” said Furchtgott-Roth.
Congress last year directed the FCC to auction 36 megahertz of spectrum and deposit the money in the U.S. treasury by Sept. 30.
FCC Chairman William Kennard sent a letter to congressional appropriators on April 27 telling them of his intention to delay the auction.
BellSouth Corp. began raising questions in March after it determined that what it thought was valuable spectrum-especially for a mobile high-speed Internet service it wants to develop-was full of TV broadcasters that do not have to vacate the spectrum until 2007 and maybe even later.
