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Wireless spectrum bidding wars on the horizon

Catwell

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"MOAR!" cries telecommunication companies...


All broadcasters and telecommunication companies waiting to bid at the Federal Communications Commission Wireless Spectrum Auction are going to have to wait a little longer. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler made an announcement recently, reporting the FCC has its work cut out to successfully host the auction, including developing the proper infrastructure to support the auction and finalizing the official rules and bidding regulations – tasks that will not be complete until mid 2015.

 

Wheeler outlined a number of things the Incentive Auction Task Force, which manages the auction, will need to finalize before the auction will be ready. Among these tasks is determining the procedures and specifications of how the auction will be run and ensuring that all operating systems and software are functional at the time of the auction, to minimize the impact for viewers and mobile-device-users when the final broadcast station relocation takes place. The Task Force and leaders in the FCC will meet in January 2014 at a Commission meeting to discuss and resolve both issues. The Commission will then vote on the proposed Report and Order in the Spring of 2014, ideally finalizing the details to make the event possible by the summer of 2015.

 

Part of the finalization process leading up to the actual auction is a mock auction and various steps to verify that each cog in the wheel of the big production will move smoothly during the actual event. Wheeler said the auction will only take place when the FCC is confident that all auction infrastructures are fully functional.

The wireless spectrum auction allows broadcasters and telecommunication companies to bid to surrender their spectrum rights in exchange for a percentage of the profit produced by the auction. The companies that are awarded bids will gain flexible use licenses to use for their respective needs. The auction is intended to improve the functionality of wireless technology, such as Wi-Fi networks, and thus the performance of wireless devices that rely on this technology, such as smartphones and tablets.

 

The upcoming auction will allow bidders to reclaim the 600MHz broadcast TV spectrum. While companies will have to wait to bid on this spectrum, additional auctions will be taking place between now and mid-2015. The auction for the 1900 MHz PCS H Block will take place on January 22, where the Dish Network is expected to win. Another auction for the 2115-2189 MHz band of the AWS-3 spectrum will take place in February of 2015. Some companies, such as AT&T, are hungry for the 600MHZ broadcast TV spectrum – and unfortunately, it looks like they’ll just have to wait.

 

Expect additional information on the upcoming auction after the Commission meeting in January of this coming year (2014).

 

C

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  • I thought the old UHF TV channels were going to be used for something like Wi-Fi, which non-technical media dubbed "Wi-Fi on steroids", presumably because of the lower path loss associated with lower frequencies.

     

    I keep reading about a coming mobile data crisis.  Users today switch to a coffee shop's Wi-Fi when the 3G network is congested.  In other words they establish a short-range link to a wired backbone.  This will have to be automated.

     

    What's funny about I can recall mobile providers saying they were out of spectrum literally in 1986.  I read about it in Popular Communications.  They've mostly just gone to smaller and smaller cells.  Eventually, though, that strategy runs out when someone in a car or train spends all his time handing off from one picocell to the next.  This is an interesting problem.  Thanks for the article.

  • I think delaying the auction is a good approach.

    Face it, they will use whatever they can get and as soon as they get new bands, they will want more.

    By delaying availability, it forces the technology companies to think about removing all of the inefficiencies in their systems and come up with more efficient encoding methods to improve information transfer.

    So keeping the bandwidth restricted should be a great way to encourage more creativity.

     

    DAB