Originally intended as an “innovation band” for the testing of new wireless broadband services, the Citizen Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) was created in 2015 to permit commercial and federal spectrum users to operate in the same spectrum band. By utilizing smaller geographic areas for licenses, and short-term authorizations lacking an…
The FCC will take a number of significant actions in the final months of 2018 to facilitate the development of 5G, the fifth generation of wireless cellular technology. First, at its October meeting tomorrow, it will vote on making a portion of mid-band spectrum (2.5 to 4.2 GHz) available for 5G…
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: If you wait until the last minute to submit an online FCC filing, be prepared to bang your head against your desk while you struggle to log in to a filing system that often melts down when thousands of filers simultaneously…
Many thought the broadcast incentive auction was the most complex task ever undertaken by the FCC, but the ten-phase spectrum repack following the auction is running a close second. The TV stations being repacked in Phase 1 are serving as the pioneers of the repack process, and since they must…
According to a newly-released Public Notice, the FCC has directed the U.S. Department of Treasury to pay all broadcasters who had winning bids in the recently concluded spectrum incentive auction. The only exceptions are those broadcasters that failed to submit sufficient banking information to the Commission for payment to be…
Ever since the idea of holding an incentive auction to reclaim and repurpose broadcast spectrum for new wireless uses first surfaced, a major concern has been how to balance full power stations’ need to replicate their pre-auction signal coverage with low power television (LPTV) and TV Translator stations’ need for…
To use a metaphor those headed to Vegas for the NAB Show will appreciate, two of the three wheels on the Spectrum Repack slot machine had stopped spinning, and all eyes have since been anxiously watching that third and final wheel. The first stopped spinning on January 13, 2017 when…
At the end of Stage 2 of the Spectrum Auction, I wrote about bidder fatigue and the hope that the FCC would drop its spectrum clearing target a couple of notches for Stage 3 to expedite the conclusion of a now seemingly interminable auction. Unfortunately, the FCC held fast to…
With great anticipation, the Stage 2 Forward Auction commenced at 10am this morning. It officially ended at 12:14pm, when the FCC announced: Bidding in the forward auction has concluded for Stage 2 without meeting the final stage rule and without meeting the conditions to trigger an extended round. The incentive…
The FCC has announced the conclusion of the Stage 2 Reverse Auction, moving the spotlight from the broadcasters willing to relinquish 114 MHz of their spectrum to the bidders in the forward auction hoping to buy it. Unfortunately for those wishing to see a speedy conclusion to the Spectrum Incentive…