The FCC set Jan. 16 for the start of the 700 MHz auction (pdf), and asked for public comment on competitive bidding procedures (pdf), for the 1,099 wireless licenses up for grabs, notes RCR News. The agency will employ anonymous bidding as a safeguard against anti-competitive behavior in the auction.
The FCC’s full text of its 700 MHz decision is expected to be published this week in the Federal Register, which likely will trigger the filing of petitions for reconsideration. Here’s the 2nd Report and Order released Aug 10th (pdf).
Five blocks of licenses will be offered (A-E), with several blocks broken into hundreds of smaller, regional licenses. The commission said the auction will offer a total of 1,099 licenses: 176 licenses in the A Block, 734 in “Cellular Market Areas” or in the B Block, 176 in the E Block, 12 licenses in the C Block and “one nationwide license, to be used as part of the 700 MHz Public/Private Partnership in the D Block.”
The Commission approved limited open access, with no wholesale requirement for the much discussed shared 22 megahertz block of the 60MHz available. The FCC steered a moderate course between the more “open” proposal of Google and the “walled garden” approach favored by cellular carriers.
The agency suggested a $4.6 billion minimum price for the new block of commercial airwaves. If that price was not reached, then the airwaves would be auctioned again without the access requirement, reports Reuters.
The C block covers two 11MHz chunks, making 22MHz available for national commercial use. This is prime real estate — it is the spectrum that Google and Verizon most want. FCC rules for open devices and open applications apply and a minimum bid of $4.6 billion is required. It will be re-auctioned if the minimum isn’t met.
The D block offers two 5MHz sections for a total of 10MHz with similar provisions. But this chunk also gets to use 12 MHz on the Public Safety band. The catch — bidders must build out a nationwide wireless network that meets public safety specifications for coverage and redundancy. Commercial traffic can share the spectrum with public safety users. Wireless Priority Service (or something like it), will allow public service users to get priority access in an emergency, overriding general public access. The minimum bid on the “D” spectrum block is $1.3 billion.
The auction of 60 MHz in the UHF television band could raise some $10-$15 billion for the U.S. Treasury, but could go higher since the spectrum requires only one third the number of towers to cover the same area as cellular or AWS frequencies (near 2 GHz). The downside is that the capacity of 700MHz is less and the frequencies can’t be used until analog television broadcasters move out, sometime after the February, 2009 DTV conversion deadline.
Commercial providers will be able to bid on large regional licenses and smaller individual market licenses. The auction will offer a total of 1,099 licenses. That includes 176 in the A Block, 734 in the B Block, 12 in the C Block, 1 in the D Block, and 176 in the E Block.
Related 700MHz stories on DailyWireless include; FCC Finalizes Rules on 700MHz: Limited Open Access, No Wholesale Requirement, FCC: License-free 700MHz Devices Failed Test, Minneapolis Bridge Collapse & Emergency Communications, FCC Testifies at House Committee, Equal Access Happy Talk and Broadband Wireless — Hello Goodbye.
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