700MHz Auction

700MHz Auction Tomorrow

Posted by samc on January 23rd, 2008

The FCC’s 700 MHz auction starts tomorrow. Auction 73 includes 1,099 licenses in the 700 MHz Band. A total of 62 MHz will be auctioned with 6-22 MHz per license. RCR News and Blog Runner have complete coverage.

The NY Times says it is expected to include multibillion-dollar bids from the nation’s two biggest wireless phone companies, Verizon and AT&T, as well as Google. Frontline, which was expected to bid on 22 mhz for shared public safety/public service use, closed it’s doors last week.

That could leave an opening for Verizon, which could pick up the $5B tab. Building out that space could cost another $10B, but government-backed rural subsidizes could help pay for that effort.

In addition, Verizon is a subcontractor in the giant $10B dollar federal IWN project to install thousands of 700 MHz towers in every community in the United States. The Project 25, 2-way radios, would be used strictly for federal law enforcement agencies. Never mind that the Integrated Wireless Network (Washington Post story) — was severely criticized by the Inspector General.

The FCC’s 700 MHz Band Plan (pdf) includes these provisions:

• 62 megahertz of spectrum will be divided into five spectrum blocks, and auctioned for commercial uses.
• The commercial spectrum will be made available at auction in a mix of geographic area sizes, including Cellular Market Areas (CMAs), Economic Areas (EAs), and Regional Economic Area Groupings (REAGs).
• The 10-megahertz Upper D Block will be licensed on a nationwide basis and will become part of a 700 MHz Public Safety/Private Partnership.
• Within the 24 megahertz of public safety spectrum, the public safety wideband spectrum is being redesignated for broadband use to allow for nationwide interoperable broadband communications by public safety users.
• The public safety broadband spectrum is placed in a 10-megahertz block at the bottom of this band and the existing public safety narrowband spectrum is consolidated in a 12-megahertz block at the top of the band. Internal guard bands are placed in between the broadband and narrowband segments.
• There will be a single, nationwide license for the public safety broadband spectrum, assigned to a Public Safety Broadband Licensee, which will work with the adjacent commercial D Block licensee as part of the 700 MHz Public Safety/Private Partnership.
• The Public Safety Band is shifted by downward by one megahertz from 764-776/794-806 MHz to 763-775/793-805 MHz in order to protect public safety narrowband operations in the Canadian border areas.
• To accommodate the shift in the Public Safety Band, the Guard Band A Block is being relocated to a new location between the Upper C and D Blocks, and, to further protect the public safety narrowband operations from potential interference, the Guard Band B Block is being placed above the narrowband block at the top of the 700 MHz Band.
  Public Safety/Private Partnership
• The Upper D Block commercial licensee and the Public Safety Broadband Licensee will form a Public Safety/Private Partnership to develop a shared, nationwide interoperable network for both commercial and public safety users

Both AT&T and Verizon spent billions last year acquiring rural telephone operators.

Verizon Wireless bought Rural Cellular Corp. for $2.67 billion in cash and assumed debt last July. Verizon Wireless said the proposed acquisition will expand its wireless service coverage in rural areas; Minnesota-based Rural Cellular Corp. has networks located in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, as well as in Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and several other states. AT&T bought the larger Dobson Communications for $2.8 billion, a rural wireless service provider.

Those acquisitions may give both AT&T and Verizon entree to federal rural subsidizes — and help shut down any plans by Google. Or maybe not.

The FCC is set to release several proposals aimed at reforming the Universal Service Fund, a government-subsidized fund that pays telcos to offset costs of deploying telecommunications services in rural areas. Kevin Martin, the Commission’s Republican chairman, is champion something known as reverse auctions, which would designate one company to receive financial assistance from the fund in any given geographic area.

source : dailywireless.org