Spectrum aggregation limits in Canada’s recent 700 MHz auction meant a more competitive auction, with higher prices and competitive carriers winning some of the spectrum, University of Maryland economist Peter Cramton said in comments filed at the FCC on behalf of T-Mobile. “The main lesson from the Canadian 700 MHz auction is that well-crafted spectrum-aggregation limits can succeed in encouraging valuable competition in the mobile industry without sacrificing auction revenues,” Cramton said (http://bit.ly/1gVIerq). “Were the Canadian auction conducted without limits, it seems likely that the regional operators would have been pushed aside by the much stronger Big 3.” Rogers “as a result of a network sharing arrangement between Bell and Telus had the most to lose if it failed to get” the A and B blocks, he said. “Rogers competed aggressively for AB and won in all the major markets paying CD$4.32 per MHz/POP, about twice the overall average auction price of CD$2.32. The C block also commanded a high price.” Like the Canadian market, the U.S. market is highly concentrated, Cramton said. “In the U.S., the Big 2 [carriers] have 67 percent market share and hold roughly 80 percent of the low-band spectrum, which is best-suited to providing coverage within buildings and in more difficult terrain. Were the Big 2 to dominate the 600 MHz auction, competition in the mobile broadband market would be harmed.” Also on spectrum aggregation, Verizon disputed arguments in a T-Mobile white paper, the T-Mobile USF Mobile Model Report (http://bit.ly/1efEsUX). “T-Mobile recently submitted a cost study analyzing deployment costs in rural markets for different types of spectrum,” Verizon said (http://bit.ly/1i85oqI). “That study provides no support for T-Mobile’s claim that it or any other firm is in danger of being ‘foreclosed’ from competing effectively in any market. The economic evidence shows there is no valid basis for the Commission to abandon its longstanding and successful policy of assigning spectrum to those firms that value it most and that will put it to use promptly to serve their customers."

FCC staff has started to brief industry groups on proposed service rules for the TV incentive auction, more than a month before the commission’s May 15 meeting, at which Chairman Tom Wheeler is expected to seek a vote on the rules (CD March 10 p1). The briefings have been with myriad public interest groups, as well as with broadcasters, carriers and companies concerned about unlicensed spectrum and wireless microphones, industry officials said. The FCC commissioners have also been briefed, as have been key Capitol Hill staff.

The TV incentive auction will have to bring in huge proceeds to be a success, and limiting bidding by AT&T and Verizon will work against big numbers, AT&T Vice President Joan Marsh said Wednesday on the company’s policy blog (http://bit.ly/OdH66y). The FCC is nearing completion of service rules for the auction, expected to get a vote at the May meeting along with spectrum aggregation rules (CD March 10 p1). Marsh said broadcaster reimbursement alone could have a $20 billion price tag. Add in $1.7 billion in relocation costs and revenue to pay for FirstNet and next-generation 911, and expectations for the auction rise, she said.

Service rules for the AWS-3 auction were in flux Wednesday, with an FCC vote on the rules slated for the agency’s meeting Monday. Small carriers appear to be winning in their fight to get more AWS-3 spectrum sold in smaller license sizes, rather than the paired 10 x 10 MHz licenses favored by AT&T and Verizon. Dish Network and advocates of bidirectional sharing also are likely losers in the revised order, FCC officials said.

The FCC wants as many carriers as possible to take part in the upcoming major auctions, FCC acting Wireless Bureau Chief Roger Sherman said Wednesday at the Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) spring conference in San Antonio. Sherman made clear that the FCC is giving strong consideration to spectrum aggregation limits for the TV incentive auction, which have been opposed by Verizon and AT&T.

Associations that represent smaller carriers joined with Dish Network, the Computer & Communications Industry Association and major public interest groups to ask the FCC Tuesday to impose spectrum aggregation limits before the incentive TV auction. The FCC is expected to take up both auction rules and spectrum aggregation rules at its May meeting. The letter was also signed by Sprint, T-Mobile, C Spire Wireless, the Competitive Carriers Association (CCA), Rural Wireless Association, NTCA, Public Knowledge, Free Press and Writers Guild of America-West.

Lobbying is intensifying on services rules for the AWS-3 auction, with many meetings in the works, eighth-floor FCC officials said. The FCC is scheduled to approve parts of the rules at its March 31 meeting, so industry lobbyists likely have only through Monday to ask for meetings with commissioners and staff.

Small carriers largely welcomed the FCC’s proposal to dedicate at least some of the spectrum offered in the upcoming AWS-3 auction in the form of Cellular Market Area licenses, rather than much larger Economic Area (EA) licenses. Meanwhile, the major groups representing small carriers have worked out an agreement on Partial Economic Area (PEA) licensing, submitting a revised proposal to the FCC dividing the U.S. and its territories into 416 PEAs for the incentive TV auction.

The FCC ordered amateur radio operator Brian Ragan to pay $13,600 for operating a radio transmitter on 104.9 MHz in the San Francisco area without a license. He acknowledged he violated the Communications Act but asked for a lower fine because he had no malicious intent, the Enforcement Bureau said (http://bit.ly/1geMEIZ). Ragan had refused to allow FCC agents to inspect his station. “Under the applicable statute, the Commission need not demonstrate an intent to violate a rule to make a finding that a licensee engaged in willful misconduct,” the bureau said. “The proposed penalty is consistent with those assessed against other operators who engaged in unlicensed operations and failed to allow inspection by FCC agents. As a licensed amateur radio operator, Mr. Ragan is expected to comply with the Rules."

"The public interest is best served” by providing 24 MHz of spectrum for unlicensed use in the 600 MHz band plan following the TV incentive auction, said the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition in an FCC filing. The coalition, which also has included Public Knowledge, reported on a meeting between Michael Calabrese, director of the New America Foundation’s Wireless Future Project, and FCC Special Counsel Diane Cornell (http://bit.ly/1g0XeyM). While the spectrum law “imposed certain statutory guideposts,” the FCC “has the authority to allow shared unlicensed use of the guard bands, of Channel 37 and of any channels reserved for wireless microphones, all which is likely to be necessary to promote and sustain markets of national scope and scale for unlicensed chips, devices and services,” Calabrese said.