Incentive spectrum auction is seen as key by smaller carriers
WASHINGTON – The Federal Communications Commission is circulating a proposed draft order for the 2016 spectrum auction, a source familiar with the situation told Broadcasting and Cable Magazine.
According to the report, the draft order is largely unchanged from the original despite numerous petitions from various special interest groups.
The draft, which is set to be released in June, will set the rules for the 2016 spectrum incentive auction.
The FCC website said the goal is to “ensure our wireless networks keep pace with the demand so they can support the critical economic, public safety, health care and other activities that increasingly rely on them. Meeting this challenge is essential to continuing U.S. leadership in technological innovation, growing our economy and maintaining our global competitiveness.”
To facilitate those goals, the FCC has planned the incentive auction to repurpose spectrum previously used by broadcast companies over to the use of wireless operators.
Steven Berry, the president of the Competitive Carriers Association, has been involved in petitioning the FCC regarding auction rules.
He told RCR Wireless News: “The FCC staff worked hard to produce a competitive framework. It is of the utmost importance for the commission to move forward with its plan to conduct the auction in 2016 and that the quantity and quality of the reserve is increased to protect consumers and competition. We are disappointed the FCC rejected CCA’s recon petition. In the current proposal, ‘foreclosure concerns’ still exist, but the FCC has other opportunities through its procedures to ensure the incentive auction is competitive, which will produce enormous benefits for consumers and the industry as a whole.”
Domestic wireless carriers see the 2016 auction as necessary to help keep up with spectrum demands of wireless consumers who are increasingly switching from conventional means of communications like radio and TV to the Internet and mobile Internet.
In the last several weeks both Google and Facebook have reported the majority of their traffic now comes from mobile devices and eMarketer said that 40% of online news is now read on a mobile device.
