House Republicans intend to drill down on FCC process overhaul, the broadcast TV incentive auction and its designated entity (DE) rules and the implications of the net neutrality order on privacy, said the GOP memo for a Tuesday House Communications Subcommittee FCC oversight hearing. Chairman Tom Wheeler will push back against the criticisms and say the agency is well on track toward accomplishing all its goals, according to his written testimony, in contrast to concerns Commissioner Ajit Pai plans to raise.

Members of the SaveWirelessChoice Coalition urged the FCC via a call with reporters Monday to address the two-step “trigger” under which “reserve” spectrum would be set aside for carriers without significant low-band spectrum in a market in the TV incentive auction. Under FCC rules approved in May 2014 (see 1405160030), the first trigger occurs when auction proceeds in the top 40 partial economic areas exceed an average price of $1.25 per MHz/POP. The second occurs when the auction raises enough money to reimburse all broadcasters for the spectrum they surrender and cover other remaining auction expenses, including repacking.

Mexico and the U.S. had a meeting of the minds on spectrum repacking after the TV incentive auction, said Mindel De La Torre, chief of the FCC International Bureau, in a blog post Friday. A formal joint announcement with more information on the agreements is expected soon, an FCC official told us. Reports emerged earlier in the week that Mexico and the U.S. had effectively reached an agreement addressing a still-unsettled area heading into the auction (see 1507220071).

Protecting licensed users of 600 MHz spectrum from unlicensed devices and wireless mics is key to a successful TV incentive auction, CTIA said in a filing Thursday in FCC docket 14-165. Tests show that the FCC’s proposed technical rules “would result in harmful interference to licensed services in violation of the Spectrum Act,” CTIA said. “It is essential that the Commission provide a means for addressing harmful interference from unlicensed white space devices and wireless microphone operations in the event they cause harmful interference to licensed wireless services in the 600 MHz band,” the wireless association said. “In other proceedings where the Commission has used a predictive model to prevent interference, the Commission also has adopted rules requiring the termination of interfering operations.”

CTIA representatives explained its bottom-line desires on rules for the TV incentive auction, in a series of meetings with aides to FCC Commissioners Mike O’Rielly, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel, said a filing by the association in docket 12-268. The FCC should “clarify the scope of the requirements affecting 600 MHz licensees that would trigger additional inter-service interference analyses and fully disclose any potential impairment associated with this process,” CTIA said. “For example, 600 MHz licensees should not be required to conduct extensive analyses of interference effects if proposed mobile network modifications would not increase the interference potential to a broadcast station.” CTIA also said the FCC should engage with carriers and others who may buy spectrum “in an iterative, collaborative process to make sure that these affected stakeholders will be able to analyze and understand the complicated data to be provided to them during the incentive auction.” CTIA also reported on a series of meetings President Meredith Baker had at the FCC with Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel, plus other agency officials. Baker is a former FCC commissioner. "CTIA believes that with the right framework in place, a successful incentive auction will be a win-win-win for broadcasters, the wireless industry, and -- most importantly -- consumers," said a filing on the meetings. "However, in order [to] have a successful auction, wireless companies need certainty in the auction process in order to make billion-dollar investments in newly available 600 MHz band spectrum."

U.S. negotiators worked out an agreement in principle with Mexico over channel assignments after the TV incentive auction, industry officials told us Wednesday. Canada earlier released a "Consultation on Repurposing the 600 MHz Band” and is on its way to addressing a post-auction world, the officials said.

NAB offered a concession on the controversial FCC proposal to put some TV stations in the “duplex gap” between uplink and downlink frequencies bought by carriers in the TV incentive auction (see 1507130054). “It is important to pursue every avenue of possible consensus,” NAB told the FCC Tuesday. The future of the gap is a hot topic as the agency wraps up incentive auction rules for the auction slated to start March 29.

The Competitive Carriers Association and members support an FCC move to place TV stations in the duplex gap as part of TV incentive auction rules, but are also open to other alternatives, CCA said in a Friday filing at the FCC, reporting on a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. “As the Commission’s models have shown, without the ability to place broadcast stations in the duplex gap, the Commission simply cannot reclaim as much spectrum for licensed broadband deployment,” CCA said. “CCA and its members are, however, open to any solution that will maximize spectrum clearing while providing ample spectrum for unlicensed devices, and proposed various alternatives to meet these goals.” One possibility, CCA suggested, would be identifying an additional channel for unlicensed use in the post-auction broadcast segment in markets where the duplex gap is unavailable. “This ‘replacement channel’ would provide developers and manufacturers the certainty they need to invest in the band by making up for the capacity lost as a result of permitting broadcast operations in the duplex gap,” CCA said. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler pulled an order addressing the duplex gap and other incentive auction issues from the agenda for last week's meeting, but promised action at the Aug. 6 meeting (see 1507150058).

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Thursday that he circulated an order addressing long-form applications of Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless, the designated entities employed by Dish Network to indirectly capture the second-most AWS-3 spectrum of any player in the auction at discounted prices (see 1501300051). Wheeler dropped the news during a media briefing after the commission meeting and declined to say what he had recommended. Industry officials say they have been told the order is an Enforcement Bureau action, which they said could well be bad news for Dish and the two DEs.

The FCC should retain flexibility to place TV stations in the 600 MHz duplex gap when necessary to secure sufficient spectrum for broadband use as part of the TV incentive auction, the Competitive Carriers Association said Wednesday. “The FCC should not sacrifice larger nationwide broadband spectrum-clearing targets for modest gains in unlicensed spectrum availability when reasonable alternatives exist,” CCA President Steve Berry said in a news release. Berry said CCA supports proposals by consultant Henry Waxman, D-Calif., former chairman and later ranking member of the House Commerce Committee, filed at the FCC last week. Waxman, a consultant to CCA member T-Mobile, proposed that the FCC put broadcasters in the gap only if broadcasters do not offer 84 MHz of spectrum or more for sale in the auction (see 1507100048). Berry said CCA supports Waxman’s proposal for a revised trigger on the spectrum reserve and strongly supports holding the auction in early 2016.