Down from Channel 51 Reverse Band Plan Appears Largely Off the Table
The FCC has not taken the controversial “Down from 51” reverse band plan for the 600 MHz band plan off the table completely, but has backed away from it because that variation doesn’t have much support, said Gary Epstein, head of the commission’s Incentive Auction Task Force. The agency is getting set to release several public notices on rules for the auction of TV spectrum, but industry should expect many calls to be a made in a single, major order, he told the Americas Spectrum Management Conference Wednesday. “We're going to do our best to do this right and it’s going to be successful."
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Epstein said many decisions remain, on day three of the chairmanship of Tom Wheeler, noting he has yet to fully brief Wheeler on the auction. “We are still envisioning a major report and order,” he said. Epstein conceded the FCC has largely given up on its “Down from 51” reverse proposal, an alternative version of the 600 MHz band plan floated by the FCC in May, which was opposed by both carriers and broadcasters (CD June 18 p1). “Even though there were some very good policy reasons for it, [it] didn’t really seem to gather a lot of universal acclaim,” he said. “While it’s still on the table, I think it’s receded somewhat.”
There is broad consensus that the band plan must allow for geographic market variation to address the problem that less spectrum is likely to be available along the Canadian and Mexican borders, Epstein said. “Having a band plan that can accommodate this kind of market variation is critical in our view in order to prevent the amount of spectrum we can clear in the most restrictive markets from being the least common denominator."
The FCC is also looking closely at the problem of co-channel interference, forming an internal staff working group to explore that issue, Epstein said. “We anticipate providing additional opportunities for public engagement and discourse on co-channel interference as we move towards a band plan recommendation and expect to release a co-channel interference public notice in the weeks ahead.” Another key focus is making sure that software to be used in the auction is “tested, developed and vetted” before the auction begins “to ensure its functionality under real-life auction conditions and to ensure bidder usability,” he said. Discussions also must continue with Mexico and Canada on the international aspects of the auction.
The FCC is also looking at the possibility of selling the 600 MHz spectrum in a size smaller than economic area (EA) licenses, but larger than cellular market area (CMA) licenses, a distinction which has been a key focus of small carriers. “We are concerned,” said Epstein. “We've had a lot of persons come in lately and talk about that very point."
Mark Aitken, a Sinclair advanced technology vice president, offered a much more pessimistic outlook, on a panel with Epstein. Aitken warned that if the FCC holds an auction starting next year, the inevitable result will be failure. Aitken was introduced as representing the “seller” side in the auction. “Actually, we're not a seller, just to make that clear,” he said. Following the traditional unicast model “you cannot provide the amount of video that consumers wish to consume,” he said. “Unicast is simply architecturally the wrong choice.”
Aitken said his company is asking the FCC “what’s the rush?” since the agency has 10 years to hold an auction. “There’s only one chance” to “get it right,” he said. “There are many paths to failure … and at the same time there are very few paths to success.”
"I'm used to being the bad guy on the panel, maybe not today,” said AT&T Senior Vice President Bob Quinn, jokingly responding to Aitken. “Politically in this town everyone does want this auction to be a success.” Making the auction work won’t be easy, Quinn conceded. Some big numbers are already known: Seven billion dollars to pay for FirstNet and $1.7 billion to cover repacking costs, he said. “Success is going to be very, very difficult to achieve.”
"Yes, we are going get it done quickly, but we're going to get it done right,” Epstein said, responding to Aitkin. “We're not going to stop either or wait for a new standard to be developed.”
"Will the incentive auction work?” asked Evan Kwerel, a senior FCC economist and key staffer on the auction. “My answer is very simple: Yes. I should probably stop there.” The forward and reverse parts of the incentive auction may end up happening in stages, at least at the beginning. said Kwerel. “Running a stage of the reverse [broadcaster] auction first … makes a lot of sense because not until you run that do you know how much spectrum you're going to have."
During a later panel, Steve Berry, president of the Competitive Carriers Association, said he was pleased with comments in the blog released by Wheeler Tuesday (CD Nov 6 p1). “We're very concerned about competition, sustained competition, long-term competition,” Berry said. “I was very pleased that the new chairman of the FCC in his blog yesterday said he was all about competition. We are too.”