An FCC filing to reallocate 30 additional MHz of spectrum for public safety was cheered by the Rural Cellular Assn. but opposed by CTIA, and largely met with silence from wireless carriers and other groups Thurs. The filing, by new company Cyren Call, proposes a Public Safety Broadband Trust to manage the additional spectrum, including leasing unused patches for commercial use.
Wireless Spectrum Auctions
The FCC manages and licenses the electromagnetic spectrum used by wireless, broadcast, satellite and other telecommunications services for government and commercial users. This activity includes organizing specific telecommunications modes to only use specific frequencies and maintaining the licensing systems for each frequency such that communications services and devices using different bands receive as little interference as possible.
What are spectrum auctions?
The FCC will periodically hold auctions of unused or newly available spectrum frequencies, in which potential licensees can bid to acquire the rights to use a specific frequency for a specific purpose. As an example, over the last few years the U.S. government has conducted periodic auctions of different GHz bands to support the growth of 5G services.
Latest spectrum auction news
Soft margins were the biggest hitch in an overall solid Q1 for Sprint Nextel, which announced its quarterly results Wed. The company cited a higher growth rate than other wireless carriers and strong affiliate merger management as the foundations of its solid quarter and said it has made solid progress on central merger matters the past several months. Sprint was evasive, however, about its plans for the upcoming spectrum auction.
The FCC late Tues. released revised designated entity (DE) rules, in time for June’s advanced wireless services auction. They don’t bar ties between DEs and carriers, but do put tough new controls on what a DE can do with spectrum it buys at a reduced rate using bidding credits. DE sources said provisions in the order virtually guarantee many DEs will sit out the AWS auction. Comr. Adelstein partly dissented, saying the order doesn’t go far enough.
Aloha Partners, the largest holder of 700 MHz licenses in the U.S., said it will join with satellite operator SES Americom to test-market mobile TV in Las Vegas in the fall, through a new subsidiary, Hwire, using the digital video broadcasting-handheld (DVB-H) platform. Aloha has a test of wireless broadband on 700 MHz in Phoenix. CEO Charles Townsend told us Mon. the Aloha will look at both tests at year-end and decide which course to pursue.
Barry Ohlson, senor legal advisor to Comr. Adelstein, told an FCBA lunch Fri. he doesn’t expect the imminent arrival of a 5th commissioner, and a 3rd Republican, at the FCC to make a substantial difference on wireless issues. Ohlson, along with Fred Campbell, wireless advisor to Chmn. Martin, and Aaron Goldberger, legal advisor to Comr. Tate, met with communications lawyers.
The FCC last week may have set too high a bar in imposing a competitiveness test that must be met to avoid blind bidding in the advanced wireless services auction, sources said this week. Save for Verizon Wireless, carriers large and small tend to oppose blind bids. But blind bidding seems all but a certainty when the auction begins June 29.
Military effectiveness was compromised when DoD had to move to inferior spectrum to make room for commerce, DoD CIO John Grimes said Thurs. Commercialization of DoD spectrum and related issues are becoming more problematic, he said in remarks to an INPUT lunch. “Spectrum is starting to eat my lunch in many ways,” Grimes said.
The FCC Wed. backed away, at least in part, from an order demanding blind bids in an advanced wireless services auction set to start in June. Blind bidding, strongly backed by FCC Chief Economist Leslie Marx, ran into a firestorm of protests from carriers large and small. Nonetheless, as the auction has neared, the FCC has seemed adamant on blind bids.
The U.K. Office of Communications (Ofcom) proposed to auction a wireless telegraphy license for the spectrum band 872-876 MHz paired with 917-921 MHz. The frequencies aren’t licensed for use except for some non-operational testing and development purposes. If interested parties approve, Ofcom intends in early 2007 to offer one U.K. license for an initial period of 15 years, renewable indefinitely. The license will be tradeable and technology- and application- neutral, and will include transmission rights and technical conditions designed to protect adjacent band users from harmful interference, Ofcom said Tues. The auction will involve a single-round sealed-bid process with a minimum bid of Pounds 50,000 ($87,000).
The FCC should “stand up to pressure” and adopt spectrum auction rules keeping bidder identities secret and barring big wireless carriers from teaming up with designated entities to get bidding credits, consumer groups said. A proposal to make such changes in this summer’s Advanced Wireless Service (AWS) auction is on the FCC’s open agenda meeting Wed. In an April 5 letter to FCC Chmn. Martin, groups said leaving the auction rules as-is could cost the U.S. $10 billion in lost revenue. “CEOs of major wireless companies have lobbied the FCC nonstop to ignore the evidence and do nothing,” said an attorney for the National Hispanic Media Coalition. Other signers included the Media Access Project, Common Cause, the Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Free Press, the New America Foundation and US PIRG.