Don’t impose incentive auction bidding limits, House Democrats told...
Don’t impose incentive auction bidding limits, House Democrats told the FCC. The agency must invite as many participants as possible “on equal terms” to an “open and fair” broadcast TV spectrum incentive auction, dozens of House Democrats said in a…
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Friday letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Such open participation would mean more revenue for funding FirstNet as well as more, necessary broadcaster participation given the higher value of the spectrum broadcasters are expected to relinquish, said 78 Democrats in the letter. The auction will have “significant impact” on the U.S. economy, they said. There has been a debate over the last year over whether the FCC should place limits on spectrum acquisition by AT&T and Verizon in the incentive auction, scheduled to take place in mid-2015. AT&T and Verizon have lobbied against limits to auction participation. Leading signatories to the letter include Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, whose signature is first on the letter, and House Intelligence Committee ranking member Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland. Four members of the Communications Subcommittee signed on but not subcommittee leadership -- Reps. Bruce Braley of Iowa; G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina; John Dingell of Michigan; and Jim Matheson of Utah. House Commerce Committee Democrats John Barrow of Georgia, Eliot Engel of New York and Gene Green of Texas also signed the letter.