LAS VEGAS — While it might not be the next spectrum auction on the schedule, the Federal Communications Commission’s planned 600 MHz incentive auction remains on top of mind of wireless operators thanks to the superior propagation characteristics available from the low-band spectrum. This quality has seemingly pushed aside much talk at this week’s Competitive Carriers Association event of the impending AWS-3 spectrum auction, which includes spectrum in the 1.7/2.1 GHz band.
However, unlike past spectrum auctions, the complexity of the incentive auction has proven significant fodder for questions, concerns and prognostications as to just how the FCC is going to pull off the proceedings. These issues were the main topic of discussion on a panel that included a rare sighting of AT&T at a CCA event.
AT&T is one of the few operators, along with Verizon Wireless, that is not a member of the CCA. However, AT&T has been one of the few operators so far that has publicly stated that it plans to participate in the auction, noting it plans to spend at least $9 billion on spectrum. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, speaking earlier at the CCA event, singled out AT&T as being one of the few operators to make such a public statement, something Wheeler said was important in order to garner needed support from television broadcasters being asked to give up some of their spectrum holdings for the wireless telecommunications industry.
Sitting comfortably next to T-Mobile US colleague Kathleen Hamm, Joan Marsh, VP of federal regulatory at AT&T, kicked off her initial comments by stating that while the telecom giant and CCA’s members did not see eye-to-eye on a number of issues, it was important for the industry to “explore the areas where we can agree.”
A few of the points panel members did seem to agree on were the importance of the incentive auction process, the need for the proceedings to be successful and that recent legal proceedings initiated by the National Association of Broadcasters have provided a hurdle to the success of the auction plans. The height of that hurdle was up for debate.
Ben Moncrief, VP of government relations at C Spire, summed up the contentious nature with broadcasters when he half-jokingly said that there were six pressure points connected with the incentive auction proceedings, with the first three being “NAB, NAB, NAB.”
While Marsh said she was optimistic that NAB was not attempting to hold up the auction proceedings, Hamm noted skepticism as to NAB’s agenda for filing a petition for review with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, claiming the FCC in its 600 MHz incentive auction rulemaking changed the “methodology used to predict local television coverage areas and population served, which could result in significant loss of viewership of broadcast TV stations after the FCC ‘repacks’ TV stations into a shrunken TV band.”
Hamm said she did not think NAB wanted to sit around the campfire singing “Kumbaya,” and instead was attempting to merely preserve its own future by not losing any more members.
“If something can be worked out, great. But, I am skeptical,” Hamm said.
Despite the issues, most on the on the panel still expected the proceedings to conclude in 2015. The FCC has said it wants to begin the auction in a mid-2015 timeline, with panel members predicting the current legal wrangling might add a few months to the schedule.
While the incentive auction process remains a work in progress, Johnathan Spalter, chairman at Mobile Future, noted that while the reverse-auction plan is complicated, should it be successful it will likely be the model used by the FCC going forward.
Marsh went even further, noting that the 600 MHz spectrum “could be our ‘5G’ spectrum,” even though she had no idea what 5G would be, but that this spectrum “could be part of that program.”
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