Incentive Auction Could Lead to Band Plan for Americas, Epstein Says
Discussions with Canada and Mexico to coordinate spectrum use in advance of the incentive auction could lead to a regionally harmonized “band plan for the Americas” similar to what was tried with the 700 MHz band plan, said Incentive Auction Task Force Chairman Gary Epstein on a panel at the Americas Spectrum Management Conference Wednesday. Though wireless industry officials at the discussion endorsed a regional or global 600 MHz band plan as a positive, NAB Executive Vice President-Strategic Planning Rick Kaplan said it would be unlikely to succeed because the FCC's proposed variable band plan would be unattractive internationally. Because the plan involves “broadcast and wireless sharing the same yard,” it will be a hard sell outside the U.S., he said. “It's a bad plan.”
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International coordination with Canada and Mexico is “critical” to the incentive auction's success, and the FCC “continues to engage in ongoing and productive discussions” with those countries, Epstein said. Regional and global harmonization would benefit the countries involved because it would lead to more economies of scale and less impaired spectrum, Epstein said. The FCC should “evangelize” the 600 MHz band plan, said 4G Americas President Chris Pearson. Global regulators should be encouraged to adopt the same band plan as the U.S., he said.
A similar effort with the 700 MHz band plan didn't work out because spectrum in the U.S. in that band is more divided among private entities than it is in other countries, said Kaplan, who was Wireless Bureau chief during that effort. Similar problems apply in the 600 MHz band, and will likely frustrate regional harmonization efforts there as well, he said.
The FCC's next auction-related action will be the release of the auction comment public notice, Epstein said, declining to identify a release date. The document will be “where the rubber meets the road” as far as outlining the auction procedures, and contain many specific details of how the auction will be conducted, said Brett Tarnutzer, assistant chief of the Wireless Bureau. The notice will establish the opening prices and bids for the reverse auction, as well as the spectrum and price per POP benchmarks to determine when the auction will close, and will define what constitutes an impaired channel reassignment, Epstein said. The notice will be a commission-level item because it addresses “new and novel” issues, Epstein said.
The commission should release more specifics about price, and not just the “rosiest” projections, Kaplan said. The Greenhill information package was “incomplete” because it didn't give projected prices at multiple levels of cleared spectrum, he said. A range of projected prices would be more appropriate, Kaplan said. The FCC is “60 percent” of the way to holding an incentive auction, Epstein said.