Verizon could still sit out the TV incentive auction, depending on the rules approved by the FCC, said Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo Tuesday during Verizon’s Q1 earnings call. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office released an estimate Tuesday that net proceeds from the auction will probably be between $10 billion and $40 billion, “with an expected value of $25 billion, the middle of that range.”

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 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.”

The Wi-Fi Alliance asked the FCC to “maximize” use of the TV spectrum for unlicensed operations as it finalizes rules for the TV incentive auction. The alliance said in a filing the FCC’s record demonstrates broad recognition of the importance of unlicensed spectrum. “Overly conservative requests to protect particular services, beyond what is necessary to reasonably guard against harmful interference, should not defeat the opportunity to create additional critical capacity for unlicensed applications,” the group said. There's disagreement about the protection licensed wireless services require from adjacent unlicensed devices, the group said. “On one side, V-COMM suggests that an out-of-band emission limit of -89 dBm/100 kHz into 600 MHz downlink spectrum and a 5 megahertz buffer is required for white space devices operating at the permitted 40 mW power level,” the alliance said. “These limitations would effectively eliminate the ability for white space devices to use the guard bands and duplex gap.” The filing was posted by the FCC Wednesday in docket 12-268. Also in the docket, representatives of wireless mic maker Shure said the company “reaffirmed” support for the FCC’s proposal to authorize wireless microphone operations in the 600 MHz duplex gap and guard bands, in a meeting with FCC officials. “Shure reemphasized that the duplex gap and guard bands would provide urgently needed spectrum for wireless microphone users given the looming repurposing of the broader 600 MHz Band,” Shure said.

LAS VEGAS -- Despite its large outlay in the AWS-3 auction, AT&T will participate in the 600 MHz auction, said AT&T Vice President Federal Regulatory Joan Marsh at a panel on the TV incentive auction at the NAB Show Monday. “AT&T has never sat out a major auction, we won’t sit out this one,” Marsh said. That affirms predictions by Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition Executive Director Preston Padden, who also spoke on the auction at multiple panels Monday.

An FCC public notice was published Friday in the Federal Register seeking comment on how the commencement of operations for new 600 MHz band wireless licensees after the TV incentive auction should be defined (see 1503260047) . Comments are due May 1, replies May 18.

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.