IATF Chair Gary Epstein to Retire
Incentive Auction Task Force Chairman Gary Epstein while planning and running the auction had concerns about funding FirstNet and whether the FCC should skip a clearing target to get the auction to finish faster, he said at Wednesday’s Media Institute luncheon. The talk was Epstein’s first public speech since the end of the incentive auction last week, and at its end he announced that he will leave the FCC at the end of April. Despite its complications, the incentive auction “achieved its major goal” of using a market-based mechanism to determine the price and demand for wireless spectrum, Epstein said. He said he's “neither happy nor disappointed nor anywhere in-between,” about the amount of money raised by the auction.
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"While we had our policy disagreements, Gary always listened and gave our arguments his considered judgment," NAB said in a statement on Epstein's retirement. "He is a dedicated public servant and we wish him well in retirement.”
Epstein said he will leave the FCC in nine days and. though he didn’t say who his successor will be, Jean Kiddoo is the deputy chief of the IATF. Epstein, formerly an attorney with Latham & Watkins, was appointed to the IATF in 2012 by then-FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, and was also a bureau chief under FCC Chairman Mark Fowler.
While planning the auction, Epstein was concerned about the Spectrum Act provision that included fully funding FirstNet among the incentive auction’s goals, he said. The money required was “a potential obstacle” to the auction succeeding, he said. That problem was eliminated when the preceding AWS-3 auction fully funded FirstNet, removing the requirement that funding come from the incentive auction.
Epstein also spoke about the decision not to use dynamic reserve pricing (DRP), a proposed policy that would have allowed the FCC to freeze the prices of some stations or repack them in the wireless band (see 1506290066). The policy was intended to allow the FCC to offer higher opening prices, but received backlash from broadcasters and the NAB. Not using DRP was the right decision from a political standpoint, Epstein said.
The FCC considered skipping the 108 MHz clearing target and dropping from 114 MHz straight to the 84 MHz target where the auction eventually closed, Epstein said (see 1607200072). Some broadcasters and analysts advocated skipping a clearing target because it would cause the auction to close sooner, they told us. Both wireless and broadcast industry groups urged the FCC not to skip the 108 MHz clearing target, he said. That policy decision meant the auction “took another month” but “industry supported it,” Epstein said.