During a marathon meeting with a five-item agenda, the commission also approved another measure aimed at helping industries that use spectrum deal with the new way the airwaves are organized in the aftermath of the auction. If Dish decides to pay the full price for the airwaves it won, ” then you’ve got less to work with and certainly would complicate M&A in a way you couldn’t do it”. “And if we do, the world is watching and will follow us”. The rules require that wireless carriers protect those stations from interference, but the experience of digital stations that were assigned to ch. 51, which is adjacent to wireless spectrum, tells us that neither the wireless carriers nor the broadcasters placed in the wireless band are likely to be happy.
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Broadcasters initially were resistant when Congress voted in 2012 to authorize a one-time incentive auction.
Dish CEO Charlie Ergen stated on the earnings call that the cancellation of the $3.3 billion discount the company received in the AWS-3 spectrum auction might derail the company’s future plans. Legere said that the FCC will be monitoring the auction closely so that Verizon and AT&T ” can’t game the system”.
In the FCC’s 2014 auction decision, it decided to use the duplex gap to provide spectrum for wireless microphones and “white spaces” devices (gadgets that use vacant TV channels to transmit data) which might not be able to operate in the post-repacking TV band.
“Good news”, he added.
T-Mobile has been lobbying the FCC to set aside more spectrum for smaller carriers – aka not AT&T and Verizon – in the upcoming 600MHz auction, but it looks like their efforts failed.
The FCC’s vote was the result of a compromise between Democrats on the commission, who wanted more restrictions on the larger carriers, and Republicans, who believed no restrictions should apply in the auction.
Dish Network (NASDAQ:DISH) reported its second quarter earnings recently. The debate over the conditions that trigger the so-called spectrum reserve have pitted the nation’s two largest mobile carriers, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, against several consumer groups and dozens of smaller carriers, including the not-so-small, foreign-backed Sprint and T-Mobile USA. But that move could limit how much money the auction raises, and Republicans have criticized the approach. Through its subsidiaries, Verizon is engaged in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, Government and wholesale customers. Paying more than $3 billion to the FCC will only add to the misery. Broadcasters are concerned the government has set aside only $1.75 billion to pay for it – potentially leaving TV stations to cover the rest.
Wireless carriers are eager to get their hands on the radio spectrum so they can make their mobile Internet services faster and more robust. The FCC is set to reject the discount as the commission feels that Dish’s bidding partners do not qualify for the small business discount.
While voting in favor of the new rules, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said he shares concerns expressed by the AHA and members of Congress. He proposed that whenever a WMTS facility determines that designated protection zones are not adequate to prevent harmful interference, those zones should be automatically extended up to three times their current size, following a licensee’s filing of a waiver request.
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It’s just one of many complexities that make the auction’s fate unclear.
