Canadian, Mexican Broadcast Allotments Will Mean Significant Impairment of Licenses Sold in Incentive Auction, AT&T Says
The total impairment to 600 MHz licenses in partial economic areas near the Mexican and Canadian borders at a clearing target of 126 MHz would be about 13 percent of MHz/pops nationwide, said an AT&T study the company discussed in…
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a meeting with FCC officials, said an ex parte filing made Tuesday in docket 12-268. With a target of 84 MHz, impairment would be 11.6 percent, it said. “AT&T discussed these results along with the proposals that AT&T has made in its comments in this proceeding, particularly AT&T’s recommendation that the Commission should avoid repacking any U.S. based broadcasters in the 600 MHz band,” the carrier said. “The unavoidable impairments represented by the TV allotments held by Canada and Mexico already will cover a substantial percentage of the MHz/pops in the 600 MHz band.” The FCC’s proposed auction methodology is based on the assumption that the blocks offered for sale will be fungible, AT&T said. “Accordingly, the Commission should offer only one class of spectrum in the clock phase, with no or very light (perhaps 10 percent or less) impairments, to make the objects in the clock phase workably fungible.”