600 MHz auction leaves FCC red-faced. A regular column on the information industries
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/DPRG-12-2016-0056 |
| Published date | 08 May 2017 |
| Date | 08 May 2017 |
| Pages | 264-266 |
| Author | Peter Curwen |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information policy |
Rearview
600 MHz auction leaves FCC red-faced
A regular column on the information industries
Peter Curwen
Peter Curwen is Visiting Professor
of Mobile Communications at
Newcastle Business School,
Northumbria University,
Newcastle, UK.
Spectrum auctions in the USA are
not normally held for nationwide
licences. Rather, the country is
divided up into a variety of areas,
often including economic areas and
cellular market areas. Furthermore,
for a country of its size, the USA
does not have many nationwide
incumbents (four), and it does not
normally have comparable spectrum
reserves, as these are acquired on
a regional basis either in auctions or
via spectrum swaps or from regional
operators. This makes it impossible
to draw direct comparisons with
most other countries, especially
those in Europe, where licences are
almost always nationwide.
The Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) keeps a record
of all spectrum auctions at
http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions.The
first recorded was in 1994 and the
most recently completed, No. 98,
took place in July 2015. Most of
these auctions have nothing to do
directly with the spectrum used by
mobile operators, and most of
the auctions have raised rather
modest amounts of money. Table I
below accordingly summarises
only those auctions which raised
more than $1bn.
With spectrum in bands readily
useable for the provision of LTE
services largely allocated, an
innovative idea to emerge from the
regulator, the FCC, was in respect
of so-called “incentive auctions”. In
effect, the objective is to provide an
incentive for the holders of
under-utilised spectrum to hand it
over for re-farming in return for
receiving part of the proceeds of
any subsequent auction of the
spectrum. The initial plan was to
finalise formal rules for the 600 MHz
band by mid-2013 and to hold
auctions during 2014, but this was
later set back to early 2016, initially
on the grounds that arrangements
were proving too complex to
proceed at an earlier date and
subsequently because the National
Association of Broadcasters filed a
petition in August 2014 to force a
review.
Harking back to the 2009 National
Broadband Plan which concluded
that 126 MHz could be freed up
using 6 MHz channels in the UHF
TV spectrum band, the plan in this
case involved a two-stage auction.
The first part would involve
acquiring the spectrum from the
broadcasters via a “reverse auction”
in which at least two competing
licensees would have to offer a
minimum acceptable sale price, and
after a repackaging exercise
designed to create contiguous
blocks of cleared spectrum, the
second part was the “forward
auction” would involve the sale of
PAGE 264 DIGITAL POLICY, REGULATION AND GOVERNANCE VOL. 19 NO. 3, 2017, pp. 264-266, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2398-5038 DOI 10.1108/DPRG-12-2016-0056
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