CCA wants to ensure smaller carriers have access to spectrum resources
WASHINGTON – The Competitive Carriers Association this week called on the Federal Communications Commission to go ahead with a planned 2016 incentive auction and allow smaller carriers to participate.
The auction is set to include spectrum in the 600 MHz band returned by broadcasters for compensation as part of the reverse-auction process, which will then be auctioned off for mobile communication use in the forward-auction process.
“Access to low-band spectrum is absolutely critical for rural and regional carriers, especially those serving the most difficult-to-reach areas,” said CCA President and CEO Steve Berry in a statement. “The very fact that 23 small, reserve-eligible carriers, all of whom are CCA members, have come together to stress the importance of the 600 MHz incentive auction should send a clear message to the Commission that these carriers must have a meaningful opportunity to bid on and win spectrum in the upcoming auction.”
CCA is a Washington, D.C.-based trade association of wireless carriers that represents the interests of small and rural wireless carriers.
During the CCA Global Expo 2015 event held earlier this year, Berry stressed the huge demand shown in the AWS-3 auction, which raised more than $40 billion as well as the need for a broader pool of winning bidders in the 600 MHz auction.
“Time is of the essence,” Berry said, “and access to this spectrum will make an enormous difference in a smaller carrier’s ability to compete. The FCC must keep moving forward with its plan to conduct the auction in early 2016. Additionally, I strongly urge the FCC to consider the letter signatories’ request to expand the maximum size of the reserve to four blocks and limit any reserve spectrum bidder to 20 megahertz to protect consumers and competition.”
The FCC last October pushed the incentive auction proceedings from its previous mid-2015 start to at least early 2016. The move was made in order to provide more time to deal with the complex nature of the forward- and reverse-auction proceedings as well as a recent court challenge brought about by the National Broadcasters Association.
That challenge claimed 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.”
