T-Mobile's Proposed Incentive Auction Trigger Is 'Auction Killer,' AT&T Says
The FCC should reject T-Mobile’s latest proposal for a revised reserve spectrum trigger for the TV incentive auction, AT&T said in a filing in docket 12-268. The trigger “would likely result in triggering the reserve auction before the auction’s costs…
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are covered, and effectively cap the price of reserve spectrum in the top 40 markets at $2.00 per MHz/pop,” AT&T said. “T-Mobile’s new idea is a potential auction killer, effectively capping the price of up to 40 percent of the spectrum in the auction before the auctions’ [sic] revenue requirement is even met.” But the Competitive Carriers Association, in a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, asked the FCC to rethink the trigger, a filing by the group said. "CCA and its members explained that the proposed spectrum-reserve trigger presents an unacceptable risk to the success of the auction and the future of wireless competition," CCA said. The FCC's proposal to tie the reserve trigger to the final stage rule for the auction "will allow the nation’s dominant carriers to game the Commission’s bidding system, effectively negating the competitive benefits of the reserve."