Incentive Auction Team Releases 'Road Map' for Auction

The next FCC action on the auction will be the application procedures PN, which will describe the auction application process and provide specific dates for application filing, a schedule of mock auctions for after applications are filed, and the information required on the auction application forms, the IATF said. The IATF will hold one workshop each on the forward and reverse auctions after the application procedures PN is released, wrote Epstein and Symons. “These workshops will go through the application process as well as provide overviews of the reverse and forward bidding systems, and they will be posted on the LEARN [Learn Everything About Reverse Auctions Now] website for reference.”

Reverse auction opening bid prices will be announced “no later than” 60 days before the deadline for auction applications, the IATF said. This fall will also see the announcement of the final table of bidding units in each partial economic area for forward auction applicants, it said. Application deadlines for both the forward and reverse auction will then open, and close before the end of the year, it said.

Broadcasters will be able to make minor changes to their applications after the deadline, until March 29, when participant broadcasters have to commit to an initial bid option for their spectrum, wrote Epstein and Symons. “That commitment will bind the broadcaster to relinquishing its spectrum usage rights at the opening price applicable to its preferred option. If, in the auction itself, the price offered to the broadcaster drops, the broadcaster is no longer bound to relinquish its spectrum unless it elects to remain in the auction at the lower price.”

The number of applications will determine the initial clearing target and the band plan, and after a mock auction for broadcasters, the actual reverse auction will begin, the IATF said. “Forward auction applicants with complete applications that wish to become qualified to bid will be required to make their upfront payments after the clearing target and band plan are announced.” Forward auction participants will also get the chance to participate in a mock auction, and the first round of the forward auction will start “no sooner than 15 business days after we release the list of qualified forward auction bidders,” the IATF said.

The FCC also posted letters exchanged between it and Mexico’s Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT) laying out the terms of how the 600 MHz band will be utilized in both nations following the incentive auction. The commission said last month that an agreement was reached and the technical letters exchanged (see 1507240051). The letters are here.

“The FCC and IFT intend to jointly reconfigure spectrum use in the TV broadcast bands by allocating a portion of contiguous spectrum, excluding channel 37, for use by mobile broadband service, beginning with channel 51 and extending downward,” said the Thursday FCC letter. The two plan to reallocate up to 84 MHz of TV spectrum in Mexico and up to 144 MHz in the U.S. for wireless broadband, it said. Supplementing the letters are charts listing the stations affected in both nations. The FCC said the nations will work toward a formal memorandum of understanding replacing a 1998 MOU. Both countries will allow “limited” spectrum sharing between TV stations and mobile broadband in the spectrum. “The potential for inter-service interference (ISIX) between these services will be limited through the development of mutually acceptable techniques and factors that permit each service to operate on overlapping and adjacent frequencies,” the FCC said.

“We express that the terms in which the FCC proposes the allotment plan for Mexico and the United States of America contained in Tables 1 and 6 with their respective specific written notes of your letter of July 15 of this year, are acceptable to our Administration as well as the proposed guidelines along with the clarifications we have described in the preceding paragraphs,” said the letter from the IFT.

CTIA appreciates the push toward more clarity, said Scott Bergmann, vice president-regulatory affairs. “As the FCC finalizes its timeline for this first-of-its-kind auction, we urge the commission to conduct multiple mock auctions to give all participants the experience and understanding needed to make informed bidding decisions.” CTIA also asked the FCC “to take care in setting dates for the application window to ensure that the wireless industry is not subject to an unduly prolonged ‘quiet period’ that could chill necessary business discussions,” he said.

“While NAB still has serious reservations about some critical decisions made in the FCC’s procedures PN, it is great that the auction task force has started to clearly lay out its plan going forward, including a number of elements to help educate and inform broadcasters,” a NAB spokesman said. “We hope the commission, however, does not lose sight of the important changes still necessary to ensure a successful auction and repacking.”

"The new data on Mexico and the blog on ‘next steps’ are enormously helpful and further evidence that the FCC is on track to auction success,” said Preston Padden, executive director of the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition. Though the “roadmap” doesn't contain many specific dates or deadlines, broadcast attorneys told us they aren't surprised that the FCC is still determining its timeframe.