Sun, 3 February 2008
The FCC 700 MHz Spectrum Auction
Intro: In this podcast we discuss the in-progress FCC 700 MHz spectrum auction. Gordon: Mike, you are the reigning Global Wireless Education Consortium Educator of the year so you know about this stuff - what exactly is this spectrum the FCC is auctioning and where did it come from? Back in 2005 Congress passed a law that requires all U.S. TV stations to convert to all digital broadcasts and give up analog spectrum in the 700 MHz frequency band. This law will free up 62 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band and effectively eliminate channels between 52 and 69. This conversion, which has a deadline of February 18, 2009, has freed up spectrum that is being split up by the FCC into five blocks. Gordon: What so interesting about this block of spectrum? Cell coverage, required cell-site density and cost (total network cost and cost per customer). I understand each spectrum block in the 700 MHz auction, except for the national public safely D-Block, has been assigned an area designation by the FCC. Could you describe those areas included in the 700 MHz auction using FCC definitions. Economic Areas Both
the A-Block (12 MHz) and the E-Block (6 MHz) are being auctioned using
the Economic Area (BEA) service areas established by the Regional
Economic Analysis Division, Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S.
Department of Commerce. Included are Guam and the Northern Mariana
Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and
the Gulf of Mexico. There are a total of 176 Economic Area service
areas designated by the FCC. BEA services include General Wireless Communications Service (GWCS), Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR) and Location and Monitoring Service (LMS). Cellular Market Areas The
B-Block (12 MHz) is being auctioned using the Cellular Market Area
(CMA) service areas. The 734 CMAs are broken down as follows:
Areas 1-305: Created from the Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs)
defined by the Office of Management and Budget (1-305) Area 306: The Gulf of Mexico Areas 307-734: Rural Service Areas (RSAs) established by the FCC which do not cross state borders including parts of Puerto Rico not already in an MSA (723-729), U.S. Virgin Islands (730-731), Guam (732), American Samoa (733), and Northern Mariana Islands (734). CMA Services include Cellular Radiotelephone Service and Interactive Video and Data Service (IVDS) Regional Economic Areas The C-Block (22 MHz) is being auctioned using the 12 Regional Economic Areas (REAs) created by the FCC. The REAs are an aggregation of the 52 Major Economic Areas (MEAs) defined by the FCC. REA Services include Wireless Communications Service (WCS)All FCC areas, along with names, county lists, maps and map info data can be found on the Commission's website linked here. Mike: How is the auction being conducted?On their website, the Federal Communications Commission has a public notice titled Auction of 700 MHZ Band Licenses. This document describes the bidding procedure for the 214 companies that have qualified for the auction, which will be handled by the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau
(WTB). The WTB is one of seven FCC Bureaus and is responsible for all
FCC domestic wireless telecommunications programs and policies.
USA Today has published an interesting article titled Google could cause a stir in FCC's airwaves auction and, in the article, some of the leading bidders and their likely strategies are listed. Let's take a quick look at some of the major bidders (in alphabetical order) and their expected bidding strategies. For additional detail be sure to read the USA Today Article. AT&T
already has more spectrum than any other carrier so bidding on the 700
MHz band will be used for further build-out. Many experts are
speculating AT&T will focus primarily on the D-Block public-safety
spectrum. Mike: Why is AT&T going after public-safety spectrum? Am I missing something? Cablevision, Cox, Advance/Newhouse, Bresnan These
cable companies are interested in spectrum to provide wireless services
and compete with the large providers. Most experts believe they will be
bidding on A-Block regional licenses in their service areas. EchoStar
is a satellite TV provider that is interested in using spectrum to
provide wireless broadband access to its customers. Most experts do not
feel EchoStar has the money to compete with companies like Google,
At&T and Verizon in the auction. Google
is the heavyweight here. The company wants to further expand into the
cellular smartphone market and has the money to compete with the big
providers. The company is expected to bid the $4.6 Billion minimum for
the C-Block spectrum. Mike: Is this National Spectrum? As opposed to regional? Like
the cable companies (Cablevision, Cox, etc), these regional wireless
companies will likely be bidding on A-Block regional licenses in their
service areas. Experts also are speculating Alltel will bid on the
public safety D-Block spectrum. Paul
Allen's (co-founder of Microsoft with Bill Gates) investment company,
Vulcan, already owns spectrum in Washington and Oregon.Vulcan may be
bidding on some of the C-Block regional licenses or smaller A or
B-Block regional licenses. The
California based wireless manufacturer is looking for spectrum for its
MediaFlo smartphone video service. Qualcomm will likely be bidding on
E-Block regional licenses. Verizon will likely be bidding big on C-Block spectrum with plans to open their network to any (hardware and software) devices. Mike: Can you give us some background on the auction to date?The 26th round finished yesterday (Friday - Feb. 1, 2008) afternoon - here's a quick update from the FCC auction site:
Mike: What's the best way to stay updated? If you want to stay updated - the FCC Auction 73: 700 MHz Auction Summary page lists, among other things, results of the auction after each round. You can also watch my blog! Mike: When will we know the winners? The auction will likely last a couple of months so we won't know the winners until then. We should start to see products from the winning bidders that use the spectrum sometime next year. |