If the $1.564 billion reserve price for the H-block...
If the $1.564 billion reserve price for the H-block auction stands, the only sure winner would be Dish Network, said a free market expert. If the FCC commissioners don’t endorse the Dish deal, the company won’t have to honor its…
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commitment to meet the “artificially inflated reserve price, which could result in the spectrum auction’s total failure,” said Fred Campbell, director of the Communications Liberty & Innovation Project at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. If the FCC endorses the deal, the price “could deter the participation of other bidders and lower auction revenues that are expected to fund the national public safety network,” he said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1fLyHDT). The FCC opened a proceeding last month on Dish’s request for flexible use of its AWS-4 spectrum (CD Sept 13 p13). To maintain the public trust, the commission should thoroughly review the processes and procedures implemented by the Wireless Bureau in Dish’s proceeding before auctioning the H-block spectrum, he said. Endorsing the deal would give the DBS company an implicit government subsidy for its anticipated interference negotiations, “the cost of which would be borne by the government ... in the form of lower auction revenues for the H block, which would tend to explain the bureau’s decision to adopt the unusually high H block reserve price proposed by Dish,” he said.