LAS VEGAS -- One of the biggest themes at the Competitive Carriers Association show last week was that many smaller carriers will sit out the TV incentive auction unless the FCC offers the 600 MHz spectrum in the smaller-size spectrum blocks they can more easily justify buying. But other industry officials say there appears to be little chance the FCC will embrace anything smaller than economic area (EA) licenses, such as the cellular market area (CMA) licenses the FCC sold in the B block of the 700 MHz auction. There are 734 CMAs in the U.S., taking in much smaller geographic areas than the 176 EAs.

The FCC should “let the market, rather than government fiat,” guide how the upcoming 600 MHz incentive auction is structured, said Commissioner Ajit Pai said Wednesday at a Mobile Future event. A market-based approach includes “letting all companies participate” in the auction by not adopting overly restrictive rules that limit participation by top wireless carriers Verizon Wireless and AT&T, he said. Pai has long advocated for the agency to follow industry’s advice in developing the rules for the incentive auction. The auction rules must also be fair to all stakeholders, Pai said, saying broadcasters and carriers have collaborated well during the process. “That’s something we should embrace,” he said. The FCC must also stay within statutory bounds allowing the agency to hold the auction and complete the rulemaking process within a reasonable time frame, Pai said. Uncertainty about the timeline doesn’t serve anyone well, he said. If the ultimate goal of the auction is to provide funding for programs like FirstNet, the FCC must “impose little or no restrictions” on the auction to make it successful, said Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner in a related panel discussion. “The more you're imposing restrictions, the less money you'll get."

LAS VEGAS -- Most smaller carriers are unlikely to participate in discussions aimed at facilitating sharing between the federal government and carriers, a key focus of the Obama administration, CEOs of small carriers agreed Wednesday during a panel discussion at the Competitive Carriers Association annual meeting. T-Mobile, widely seen as the most active carrier of all did not participate on the panel.

LAS VEGAS -- T-Mobile has to focus on sub-1 GHz spectrum if it wants to compete with Verizon Wireless and AT&T, and T-Mobile Vice President Kathleen Ham offered a concrete reason why during a panel discussion at the Competitive Carriers Association annual meeting Tuesday. T-Mobile has only a single license below 1 GHz, a 700 MHz A-block license in Boston, acquired as part of T-Mobile’s acquisition of MetroPCS.

LAS VEGAS -- The FCC should at least consider selling 600 MHz spectrum in smaller license sizes than economic area (EA) licenses, FCC acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn said Tuesday, following a keynote at the Competitive Carriers Association’s annual conference. Carrier executives told us the FCC may be considering license sizes somewhere between EAs and the much smaller cellular market area (CMA) licenses, possibly something along the line of component economic area licenses (CEAs), a category previously developed by the FCC. CCA recently adopted a position in favor of CMAs over EAs for the incentive auction (CD June 20 p1).

LAS VEGAS -- The upcoming incentive auction of TV spectrum will likely be the biggest event in the next 10 years for the wireless industry, said Neville Ray, T-Mobile chief technology officer, during a Tuesday keynote speech to the Competitive Carriers Association. Verizon Wireless controls 54.7 MHz of sub-1 GHz spectrum and AT&T 48 MHz, so other carriers are desperate for the 600 MHz spectrum the FCC will auction, Ray said.

T-Mobile and Verizon jointly submitted a proposed band plan to the FCC for the incentive auction in the 600 MHz band. “While we continue to support our respective positions on issues raised in this proceeding, we agree strongly that our proposed band plan will best enable the wireless industry to meet the public’s burgeoning demand for mobile broadband services,” the carriers said in a joint letter. “Specifically, we believe the Commission should adopt a band plan that satisfies four principles: (1) maximize the amount of paired spectrum available for mobile broadband; (2) allow for the cost-effective and timely development of network equipment and end-user devices; (3) facilitate a single 3GPP band class to provide interoperability across all paired blocks in the 600 MHz band; and (4) allocate for supplemental downlink use any unpaired spectrum not needed to protect 600 MHz broadband operations against harmful interference."

LAS VEGAS -- Executives from T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular predicted in a discussion of the spectrum sale at the Competitive Carriers Association’s annual meeting Monday that the federal government could raise enough money to pay for FirstNet before the incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum even gets under way as early as next year.

The federal government needs to do a “bona fide audit” of its spectrum holdings, said former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, a Hudson Institute visiting fellow, Monday at a Hudson event. The White House and Congress need to “make it a priority to have there be a transparent -- as transparent as possible -- but meaningful audit of federal spectrum, and then move on to implement policies that would promote the auction of exclusive-use licenses,” McDowell said. The federal government’s use of its spectrum holdings in the 1755-1780 MHz band has been an ongoing debate as federal agencies seek to clear government users from swaths of the band to allow commercial use. Federal users need to be given an incentive to move off the band, but the process remains “opaque,” McDowell said. “I know a lot of federal spectrum is used for very important purposes, but I think we can all assume that not all of that spectrum is being used efficiently -- or sometimes not at all -- and that there would be a greater societal and economic benefit were it auctioned.” Troubles also lie ahead for the desired pairing of the 1755 band with the 2155-2180 MHz band in an AWS-3 spectrum auction, he said.

VTel Wireless urged the FCC to offer 600 MHz spectrum in the incentive auction in the small, Cellular Market Area-sized chunks that are most useful to small carriers. VTel is deploying a 3G network in rural parts of New York State and Vermont, the company said. “The auction of the 600 MHz band presents an excellent opportunity for the Commission to further promote wireless broadband deployment, particularly in rural areas where next generation wireless services are often lacking,” the carrier said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/17RVw0S). “But for the goal of increased rural broadband deployment to be realized, the Commission should license the 600 MHz band on the basis of CMAs. CMAs represent the most manageable geographic area for small carriers, which are the entities most committed to serving rural America.”