The FCC decision to delay the TV incentive auction wasn’t much of a surprise and shouldn’t lead any of the four national wireless carriers to rethink their likely participation, financial analysts and other industry observers told us. AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon all need, to one extent or another, low-band spectrum and so will go big in the auction, analysts agreed. Several observers said some spacing between this month’s AWS-3 auction and the incentive auction could help the carriers get their incentive auction plans in order. The FCC recently opted to delay the start of the auction from mid-2015 until early 2016 (see 1410240048).

The FCC voted 5-0 in an order not to adopt a cap on the amount of aggregate interference that broadcasters can receive after the post-incentive auction repacking (http://bit.ly/1sRxY97). The item had been set for the commission’s Friday open meeting, but was deleted from the agenda after being approved, officials said. Along with declining to adopt the cap requested by numerous broadcast commenters (see 1407080021), the item included an order adopting a methodology – called the ISIX methodology -- for calculating the interference broadcasters would receive from wireless carriers after the auction, and a Further NPRM seeking comment on that methodology once the FCC has learned from carriers how their networks will be deployed.

The government and the telecom and technology industries must aggressively begin paving the way for the emergence of 5G LTE, said government officials and network operators. Major carriers have begun rolling out enhanced services to meet growing needs of data capacity, while preparing for the advent of 5G and other emerging technologies, they said Tuesday at a 4G Americas event in Washington. The wireless industry is investing in and creating new network technology to increase speeds and use spectrum more efficiently, said wireless executives. The industry also should work to find ways to make handling the next-generation networks less complex, a service provider said.

Upcoming FCC spectrum auctions will set the stage for wireless tower companies to get more business, said analysts and wireless industry professionals in interviews last week. The terms of recent tower transactions could result in more tower sales, an analyst said. Bringing more spectrum into the market would be an advantage for the wireless tower industry, an economist said.

Short-form applications filed for the AWS-3 auction ran significantly below the numbers in the two past major auctions, 700 MHz and AWS-1 (CD Oct 2 p5). But the news is not all bad for the FCC, which hopes to raise big dollars and make a major down payment on FirstNet, industry officials tell us. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon all jumped in, as has Dish Network, according to filings at the FCC.

As the FCC looks to expand Wi-Fi capacity, Globalstar’s proposal to use some of its mobile satellite services (MSS) spectrum for terrestrial wireless purposes is a way to improve the efficiency of assigned spectrum, said an American Consumer Institute (ACI) Center for Citizen Research report. The proposal is an opportunity to expand Wi-Fi by providing 20,000 free access points to schools and other institutions, while continuing satellite services, the report said (http://bit.ly/1rdJAht). Some industry officials agreed the Globalstar proposal for the terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) can quickly be put into use. Some wireless operators said a time frame can’t be determined until thorough interference testing is done.

Questions are arising whether the FCC will be able to offer truly “fungible” spectrum blocks in the TV incentive auction, especially given commission plans to allow unlicensed use of the guard bands and duplex gap. Commissioner Ajit Pai raised the issue in his comments on the incentive auction unlicensed rulemaking notice Tuesday (http://fcc.us/1xH1eTa).

The FCC approved two NPRMs Tuesday designed to move the agency several steps closer to a TV incentive auction, still expected to take place next year. The first NPRM seeks comment on how Wi-Fi and other unlicensed transmissions will be able to use the TV spectrum post-auction. A second seeks comment on wireless mics that use the 600 MHz band. The FCC approved both on 5-0 votes.

AT&T, Mobile Future and Verizon each called on the FCC to reject T-Mobile and Sprint petitions a>sking the agency to make major changes to spectrum aggregation rules prior to the TV incentive auction. Sprint and T-Mobile sought changes last month (CD Aug 13 p1).

Representatives of Google and Microsoft urged the FCC to adopt technical rules permitting the use of three 801.11af channels in the 600 MHz band following the TV incentive auction, in a series of meetings with commission officials. The companies elaborated on their arguments in an ex parte filing in docket 12-268. The companies urged that the rules allow the operation of Mode 1 and 2 personal/portable unlicensed devices in the duplex gap, the lower guard band and Channel 37, the filing said (http://bit.ly/1uEzbyS). They argued that a database should be allowed to determine unlicensed device operation based on the device’s location-accuracy capabilities so devices with better accuracy can operate in appropriate locations, rather than preserving the current rule, which mandates that all devices establish location within +/- 50 meters. Unlicensed systems should be allowed to determine areas where devices can operate in the broadcast band using both the database and sensing, Google and Microsoft said.