Placing even a few TV stations in the wireless band would “dramatically affect” the amount of spectrum available in the forward auction, NAB told an aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a meeting Monday, according to an ex parte filing posted online in docket 12-252 Wednesday. “If the FCC places even a handful of stations in the wireless band, it may consequently be restricting the forward auction to two or three blocks of paired spectrum available in the Northeast corridor,” NAB said. The FCC also has made “broadcaster costs an after thought” in the repacking process, NAB said. The commission staff “has yet to produce any data suggesting that, by optimizing repacking moves earlier in the auction process, it will be handcuffed from its goal of repurposing spectrum for the wireless industry,” NAB said. The agency also should modify its white spaces rules to require white space devices to include “geolocation capability” to make falsifying their location more difficult and an enforcement system that “imposes responsibility on database administrators who fail to correct false information in the database,” NAB said.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told lawmakers that the broadcast TV incentive auction should happen in early 2016, as he has been committing. “In addition to the competitive benefits of moving forward with the incentive auction, a convergence of forces is building that strongly supports commencing the auction in early 2016,” Wheeler told House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., in a March 11 letter released last week. Broadcaster interest “has gathered significant momentum,” Wheeler said, citing the agency’s outreach and pointing to the market demand shown by the bidding in the recent AWS-3 auction. And “the ‘beachfront’ character of 600 MHz band spectrum guarantees that providers will bid substantial sums for it,” Wheeler told Eshoo and Markey. Wheeler sent a different letter the same day to Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., on the FCC’s dedication to revisiting the competitive bidding rules ahead of the incentive auction. "I remain committed to providing bona fide small businesses a meaningful opportunity to participate in FCC spectrum auctions -- including next year's incentive auction -- while protecting the integrity of our auction program,” Wheeler told McCaskill, who had blasted Dish Network’s “abuse” of the FCC designated entity rules.

The FCC is seeking comment on the definition of “commencing operations” for new 600 MHz band wireless licensees after the incentive auction, said a public notice issued Thursday. Since some broadcast users of the band are allowed to continue operations until they receive notice that the wireless licensee is about to “commence operations” in that spectrum, a specific definition is needed, the PN said. It proposed defining commencement as when the wireless licensee begins “site commissioning tests,” which usually take place after the physical infrastructure of a cell site has been installed. For site commissioning testing, a licensee “will require access to its 600 MHz Band spectrum in the area in which it is commencing operations so all of its facilities can be tested under the real world conditions for which they were designed and in an environment that is free from potential interference from others,” the PN said. It seeks comment on whether some other stage of testing should be considered commencement, and the size of the area the wireless licensee must notify ahead of time. Comments are due May 1, replies May 18.

House Communications Subcommittee lawmakers pressed FCC officials on details of the broadcast TV incentive auction, focusing on whether stations will participate and whether the commission’s funding for the efforts will be enough. The officials said the agency is ready to tackle the issues with the resources at hand.

NAB filed an emergency petition at the FCC asking the agency to suspend operation of the TV white spaces (TVWS) database system until “serious flaws” are corrected in the system. The petition also asks the FCC to launch a rulemaking to “correct serious design flaws” in the database. The FCC is preparing for the TV incentive auction, which is expected to expand the amount of TV spectrum dedicated to unlicensed use.

The FCC should preserve one noncommercial educational channel in each community during the post-incentive auction repacking, said Association of Public Television Stations President Patrick Butler and other APTS, Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS officials in a meeting with Commissioner Mike O’Rielly Monday, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 12-268 Wednesday. Holding space for an NCE channel would “allow any broadcaster to volunteer to participate in the incentive auction, and at the same time would continue the Commission’s well-established reserved spectrum policy by ensuring space for a new entrant in the event that an unserved area develops,” the filing said. The FCC also should grant priority status to displacement applications for translators connected with NCE stations after the auction, the public TV representatives said. The FCC should avoid repacking any stations into the new wireless bands, the filing said. The commission should “maintain a contiguous television broadcast band due to the insurmountable challenges with implementation of a repacking plan that intermingles broadcast and wireless services in the 600 MHz Band,” the filing said.

There's no chance that spectrum licenses sold in the TV incentive auction will be truly generic or equal and there is broad agreement that the FCC’s solutions for addressing this issue won’t work, AT&T told the FCC in reply comments on a public notice on competitive bidding rules. Several large broadcasters weighed in with ideas to increase auction participation, including decreasing the increments by which prices in the reverse auction are lowered. The comments were filed in docket 12-268.

Dish Network is unlikely to build its own wireless network despite a rash of spectrum buys, said T-Mobile Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter Thursday at a Morgan Stanley financial conference. Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen “has done a masterful job” of creating a mid-band spectrum portfolio important to carrying data traffic, he said. “What Charlie ends up doing, gosh, I wish I could answer that.” Ergen has said recently that Dish would be in no hurry to monetize its spectrum holdings (see 1502230038). T-Mobile would be a “very interesting” party to work with Dish on deploying its spectrum, Carter said. Carter also said T-Mobile followed a “very disciplined” strategy in the AWS-3 auction since it's already well positioned in the mid-band spectrum offered in that auction. “We went into the AWS-3 auction with the best mid-band portfolio in the U.S. and we came out of it with the best mid-band portfolio,” he said. Carter hinted T-Mobile may go much bigger in the TV incentive auction and the 600 MHz spectrum that will be for sale. “Our priority is to perfect our low-band footprint” and put T-Mobile on a level playing field with the other three national carriers, he said. T-Mobile has “years of runway” to expand its network with its current spectrum holding, he said.

The Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition (EOBC), which represents broadcasters considering the sale of their spectrum in the TV incentive auction, Wednesday proposed a revised formula for determining the value of TV stations headed into the auction. A spreadsheet released by EOBC shows the starting prices for more than 2,000 TV stations based on the FCC’s proposed starting formula and the alternative offered by EOBC.

Test results by consultant V-Comm point to major interference issues if white space devices and wireless mics are allowed to use the 600 MHz guard band or duplex gap following the TV incentive auction, said CTIA representatives. They met with FCC officials Feb. 25 to answer their questions and explain the V-Comm test results, said a filing posted Monday in docket 14-166. CTIA explained V-Comm’s “parameters and the technical assumptions used in conducting the interference testing,” CTIA said. “V-COMM explained that unlike the other parties that provided technical data in this proceeding, its testing relied upon actual measured values rather than 3GPP [3rd Generation Partnership Project] standard defined values for receiver sensitivity and blocking.” Unlicensed operations in the TV spectrum are being examined more closely by the FCC as rules are written for the incentive auction, expected to get underway next year (see 1502260008).