WASHINGTON-Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Commerce Committee, has endorsed the Federal Communications Commission’s request to delay until next year a spectrum auction for general wireless communication services (GWCS) slated for August, his staff said last week.
McCain was one of several members to receive a written request from FCC Chairman William Kennard late last month to delay the auction because of “unprecedented” lack of interest. “We don’t like giving away spectrum so we’re OK with it,” said Lauren “Pete” Belvin, majority senior counsel for the communications subcommittee.
Congress told the FCC in 1993 to auction at least 10 megahertz of spectrum transferred from the federal government by Aug. 10, 1998. The FCC partially fulfilled this requirement in 1997 when it auctioned five megahertz of spectrum for Wireless Communication Services (WCS). The FCC, however, was burned in that auction when some licenses were bought for as little as $1 and total revenues were just $13.6-million-well below projections. Kennard is hoping that by delaying the auction, the FCC will avoid a similar outcome in the GWCS band.
The GWCS spectrum is located at 4660-4685 MHz. FCC technical staff believes that the lack of interest is due to the small size of the spectrum block and its isolated location. By delaying the auction, the FCC hopes to combine it with the 4635-4660 MHz band for a total of 50 megahertz of spectrum. Interest in this larger block might be greater because the bands could be offered as pairs of channels for separate transmit and receive channelization, Kennard said in his letter to key members of Congress dated April 23. The FCC would not be able to implement this solution before August because the FCC has not completed the necessary processing of the second band.
The FCC expects to be able to auction the total 50 megahertz sometime in 1999.
