Verizon, T-Mobile Disagree on CMA-Level Bidding in 3.5 GHz Band Auction

“CMA-level bidding is not package bidding and would reduce bidder flexibility, while adding unnecessary complexity to an already-complex auction,” Verizon said. Verizon identifies T-Mobile as the lone CMA bid supporter. T-Mobile fired back, urging instead that the FCC allow just CMA-level bidding in the top 172 markets incorporating multiple counties and only county-level bidding in remaining areas. “That approach would: (1) eliminate the complexity of allowing both CMA-level and county-level bidding in the same area; and (2) balance concerns that CMA-level bidding may inhibit some bidders from securing licenses against the potential for interference and need for coordination the Commission identified when it decided to consider package bidding,” T-Mobile said. There's “overwhelming opposition” to CMA-level bidding, so drop that and package bidding, said the Rural Wireless Association. RWA noted 126 of the 663 counties in the 172 markets are rural “based on the Commission’s own definition.” CMA-level bidding “would produce unintended, detrimental consequences that would jeopardize the auction’s success,” NCTA said. CMA bidding “adds a bewildering level of complexity to the auction process that, by itself, eliminates any realistic possibility of auction success for smaller commercial and business enterprise entities,” the Enterprise Wireless Alliance filed: “It would undo the very compromise that the Commission achieved.” A broad group opposes CMA-level bidding “largely because the proposal will exclude all but the largest mobile wireless carriers from having access to PAL-protected spectrum wherever CMA-level bidding applies,” said the Industrial IoT Coalition.