Small Carriers Want More Incentive Auction Spectrum Set Aside for Competitive Carriers
Twenty-three non-national wireless carriers represented by the Competitive Carriers Association Wednesday asked the FCC to expand the amount of spectrum set aside for competitors to AT&T and Verizon in the TV incentive auction. The three-block reserve now in the rules…
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for the auction is “too small to enable competitive carriers to secure sufficient spectrum in this important new frequency band,” their letter to the FCC said. “Increasing the size of the reserve helps fulfill Congressional goals and advances the public interest in promoting wireless broadband deployment.” The FCC should expand the maximum size of the reserve to four 10-MHz blocks, while limiting the amount of reserve spectrum that any one bidder can buy to 20 MHz, the small carriers said. CCA’s two biggest members, Sprint and T-Mobile, didn't sign the letter. “The very fact that twenty-three small, reserve-eligible carriers, all of whom are CCA members, have come together to stress the importance of the 600 MHz incentive auction should send a clear message to the Commission that these carriers must have a meaningful opportunity to bid on and win spectrum in the upcoming auction,” said Steve Berry, CCA president, in a news release. "Although some rural carriers buy spectrum and provide service to consumers, CCA's letter is unfortunately more of the same posturing -- rent seeking by certain companies who want to buy at a discount now, decline to build, and then later sell at a profit,” responded Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter. “There is simply no basis for the FCC to increase the size of the reserve."