More than two years after the Federal Communications Commission unveiled its National Broadband Plan, the agency today formally kicked off the incentive auction process, which will offer up broadcast spectrum for mobile broadband use.
With the move, broadcast TV stations with unused spectrum will be able to sell it to wireless carriers hungry for extra bandwidth. But like most things in Washington, this won't happen overnight. The FCC today voted to start the spectrum auction process, but that includes a public comment period that starts now.
As more and more people pick up data-heavy gadgets like smartphones and tablets, the available space on the network shrinks. Wireless carriers have long warned about the impending "spectrum crunch," but it has taken years to sort out how best to allocate available spectrum to mobile broadband providers.
"As recently as July 2007, there was no iPhone, no Android phones, no tablets, no app stores. Back then only 9 million Americans, or about 4 percent of the mobile market, had smartphones," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement. "Today, the majority of mobile subscribers have smartphones, and those phones generate 35 times more traffic than old feature phones. For tablets, it's 121 times more traffic."
The idea of incentive auctions was first floated in the FCC's National Broadband Plan, which was released in 2010. It has been discussed at length since then, and earlier this year, Congress inserted language into a larger economic package that gave the FCC permission to auction off broadcast spectrum to wireless carriers.
In recent months, broadcasters have been largely supportive of the plan, since they will be able to make some money. But the National Association of Broadcasters has stressed that its members must only give up spectrum on a voluntarily basis and not be forced into it. As a result, the FCC today launched the Broadcaster LEARN (Learn Everything About Reverse-Auctions Now) Program, which is intended to educate broadcasters about the incentive auction process.
When things actually get going, the auctions will have a three-pronged approach: 1) a "reverse auction" whereby broadcasters will offer up the spectrum they want to sell; 2) the "repacking" of available spectrum to free up a portion of the ultra-high frequency band for other uses; and 3) a "forward auction" of the newly available spectrum.
Before that happens, though, the FCC wants your input on everything from the design of the auction and repacking to unlicensed use of spectrum and the ultimate transition.