600 MHz Incentive Auction Kicks Off – What To Expect Next? – Carrier Wrap Episode 21

On this week’s Carrier Wrap, RCR Wireless News Editor-in-Chief Dan Meyer and Dan Hays, principal at PwC’s Strategy& division, discussed the FCC’s 600 MHz incentive auction, including what we can expect to hear about the proceedings over the next several weeks and possible long-term concerns connected with the process.

The process began with television broadcasters making their initial bid commitments by end of day on March 29, which the FCC will then use to begin the reverse auction aspect of the proceedings. The reverse auction will determine the price at which broadcasters will voluntarily relinquish their spectrum usage rights in the 600 MHz band.

Television broadcasters interested in giving up some of their current spectrum holdings in the 600 MHz band had until Jan. 12 to file an application with the FCC, with a statement from the National Association of Broadcasters indicating “robust” participation from television broadcasters.

The reverse auction process is expected to take anywhere from three weeks to two months, at which point the FCC will take a break in the proceedings to repackage the spectrum offered up by the broadcasters into chunks that can be used by commercial cellular providers. Analysts predict the FCC could have between 80 megahertz and 110 megahertz of spectrum available for the auction’s more conventional forward auction process.

Hays said he thought the FCC had done a good job in tackling most of the potential issues leading up to the auction’s start, but some of the processes, including some of the mock auction software, had yet to be tested and thus there remained the chance of some challenges.

Overall, Hays said the auction should come in at around the $30 billion to $40 billion in total proceeds being predicted by many, with the event potentially wrapping up sometime in the August or September time frame. That end date is seen as a bit critical as Hays warned it was likely the FCC would be looking to keep the process outside of the presidential election hysteria.

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