FCC Delays Start of H-Block Auction Until Jan. 22
The FCC delayed to Jan. 22 the start of the H-block auction, which had been scheduled to get underway Jan. 14, it said in a notice released Monday (bit.ly/1i94GKc). The auction’s timing had been a bone of contention at the FCC, with Commissioner Ajit Pai favoring the earliest possible auction and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel favoring a sale later in the year. In September, the bureau scheduled a Jan. 14 auction with a $1.6 billion reserve price (CD Sept 16 p1) after Dish Network agreed to meet that price. Carriers are also interested in the band, which is adjacent to the PCS block, FCC officials said in September.
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The delay takes into account a delay in the comment deadline on Dish’s request for flexible use of its AWS-4 spectrum. The DBS company had asked the FCC to hand down an order by Dec. 14, 30 days before what was to be the start of the H-block auction.
Reply comments were due Oct. 10, but delayed as a result of the government shutdown. They are now due Oct. 28, one of the special cases the FCC cited in its notice addressing filing deadlines released after the government reopened Thursday (CD Oct. 14 p 9).
On a second auction, the incentive auction of TV spectrum, AT&T filed a letter at the FCC Monday. It offered limited support for T-Mobile/Verizon Wireless’s proposal for a 600 MHz band plan that would divide spectrum offered for sale to carriers into two 35 MHz blocks above Channel 37, with downlink in the lower block and the blocks separated by a 10 MHz duplex gap (http://bit.ly/1dbCYP9).
"Based on the foregoing, AT&T agrees that if the auction yields 84 MHz of spectrum or more in the largest non-border markets across the country, the 35 x 2 MHz proposal as broadly outlined in the Joint Submission is an efficient and effective approach to the band plan,” AT&T said. “AT&T has consistently endorsed the four principles outlined in the Joint Verizon Wireless/T-Mobile Submission ... including maximizing paired spectrum in the 600 MHz incentive auction proceeding, allowing for cost-effective and timely development of new equipment and devices, facilitating a single 3GPP band class where appropriate, and allocating supplemental downlink blocks below Channel 37.”
But AT&T said that if less spectrum is cleared, its proposed 25 x 2 MHz approach would make more sense. For example, if the FCC clears only 72 MHz of spectrum in the majority of non-border markets, the Verizon/T-Mobile plan would provide just 40 MHz for wireless broadband, AT&T said. “Relying on our current analysis of co-channel interference challenges, AT&T cannot support any of the specific 35 x 2 MHz configurations in the Joint Submission for clearing targets at 78 MHz or below in non-border markets."
"T-Mobile is pleased AT&T now supports the band plan we filed jointly with Verizon, recognizing it is the preferred plan and technically feasible where at least 84 MHz is cleared,” said T-Mobile Vice President Kathleen Ham. “T-Mobile also believes it is the best plan to accommodate variable clearing in markets and we'll continue to work toward full agreement given a wide variety of variables in the auction.” ,