FCC Exploring Revised Rules for 700 MHz D-Block Auction
The FCC approved 5-0 Wednesday a rulemaking notice that sets the stage to reauction the 700 MHz D-block. The spectrum is all but sure to be offered a second time for a private-public partnership to build a national interoperable network for public safety. As expected, the rulemaking asks questions but draws no tentative conclusions, FCC officials said. The questions include whether to reauction the spectrum without conditions if no buyer emerges to build a public-safety network.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
The FCC meeting began more than an hour late, and parts of the order were being debated late in the process. A key change pushed by several commissioners is that the rule itself be put out for a second round of comments once the FCC writes it. A last-minute wrinkle arose when Commissioner Deborah Tate asked that the order make clear that a second comment round will occur only if the FCC agrees to reauction the spectrum for public-safety use. That upset commission Democrats, commission sources said.
Commission Democrats wanted longer comment periods than Chairman Kevin Martin proposed. The FCC will allow 30 days for comments, then 15 days for replies, on the rulemaking approved Wednesday. That’s up from the 14 days for comments and 7 for replies that Martin proposed.
Another concession obtained by the Democrats is that a technical advisory committee, approved by the FCC in 2006 but never formed, will start meeting to advise the agency on the public safety network. Martin also agreed to hold an en banc hearing on the D-block.
“A lot of the most difficult issues relate to some of the technical characteristics of the network,” Martin told reporters after the meeting. “What should be the buildout requirements? Particularly when you start talking about buildout that reaches a very high percentage of the population that becomes extremely burdensome and very expensive for a network operator.”
A matter likely to be contentious is whether the operator must “harden” the network so it’s more reliable than commercial counterparts, Martin said. “That can be something that’s very expensive,” he said. “Those are the kind of issues that have the potential to be very difficult… I don’t think that there’s consensus, necessarily.”
Martin said it remains unclear whether an entity will bid for the D-block even with revised conditions. He hoped to hold the reauction this year, he said, adding that “I don’t know if we'll end up making it.” Martin stressed that if the reauction doesn’t occur before the DTV transition, “that spectrum will just be sitting unused.”
Commissioner Michael Copps sounded a note of caution on the difficulty of successfully reauctioning the spectrum. “Even if we roll up our sleeves and dedicate ourselves this summer to coming up with realistic network specifications, the truth is that we still are not assured of coming up with a workable solution,” he said. “What we are trying to do here is conduct the most difficult FCC auction ever in an extraordinarily difficult economic environment.”
Copps objected to a notice provision seeking comment on whether the FCC automatically should sell the spectrum for commercial use if the public-safety auction falls short. “This proceeding is about establishing a viable public- private partnership to enhance public safety,” Copps said. “It would be unfortunate if anyone was able to conclude that by simply torpedoing the partnership concept, they can move quickly to a purely commercial auction.”
Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said the auction rules must offer certainty to potential bidders. “One of our greatest failings last time was that the expectations were not made clear up front as to how the network would look and what would be asked of a private sector partner,” he said. “We have since learned that potential private partners did not have the certainty they needed to raise or commit capital to the project.”
Commissioner Robert McDowell talked with many industry players after the 700 MHz auction, he said. “Apparently potential bidders were deterred by onerous build-out and service requirements that required the eventual licensee to incur massive costs in an atmosphere of extreme uncertainty regarding how many, if any, public safety entities might actually sign up as paying customers,” he said. “Today’s further notice offers an open-ended opportunity for all interested parties to tell us what we did wrong, what our new goals should be, and how we can accomplish those goals.”
The rulemaking seeks comments on such topics as: Public safety priority access to the network in emergencies; whether to license the D-block spectrum nationally or regionally; the appropriateness of the licensee “or any of its agents, advisors, or service providers” serving as an MVNO; and the process by which the D-block licensee and the public safety broadband licensee negotiate a network sharing agreement.