The Form 177 application window for TV licensees to apply to participate in the incentive auction opened Tuesday at noon EST, two hours into the Incentive Auction Task Force’s workshop on filling out and submitting Form 177. “Once you leave here today, you’re on the clock,” IATF Chair Gary Epstein told the crowd of attorneys and broadcasters. “Please file early; we can’t stress this enough,” he said. The window to file Form 177 ends at 6 p.m. EST, Jan. 12, and Epstein said he expects to pull an all-nighter that evening. Broadcasters can still decide not to participate in the auction if they change their mind after the window closes, but those that don’t file Form 177 before Jan. 12 won’t be able to sell their spectrum, said Wireless Bureau Attorney Advisor Erin Griffith.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will plead with Congress not to slash the agency’s budget for FY 2016. He will warn of “severe consequences to the agency’s ability to protect public safety, advance the spectrum agenda, and transact business vital to the U.S. economy and consumers in a timely fashion” if lawmakers proceed with cuts as planned earlier in the year, according to written testimony for his appearance alongside all four other commissioners before the Communications Subcommittee Tuesday.
Senate opposition is growing to the Bipartisan Budget Act’s robocall provision, and Consumers Union is now saying to expect legislation to be filed Tuesday. President Barack Obama signed the two-year budget deal, which includes an entire section on the FCC and spectrum auctions (see 1510270063), into law Monday, after Senate and House passage last week. But Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., intends to introduce, likely by mid-week, what he’s calling the Hang Up Act to repeal a provision of the deal that allows for robocalls to cellphones for the collection of debt owed to the government (see 1510300061). Consumers Union revealed several Democratic co-sponsors who already have signed on to the unreleased legislation in its latest petitioning for supporters -- Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Judiciary Committee ranking member Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Ron Wyden of Oregon. McCaskill and Blumenthal slammed the provision during a Commerce Committee hearing last week, the same day the White House defended the merits of the provision (see 1510280039). “We’re encouraging you to put pressure on your Senators to co-sponsor the bill,” Consumers Union fellow Maureen Mahoney said in a blog post following Senate passage of the budget deal. “It’s crucial that the Senate quickly passes this measure. Otherwise, millions of consumers will be hassled by these soon-to-be-legal robocalls. Even those of you who don’t hold federally-backed debt could be affected.”
House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., welcomes the “inclusion of provisions to free up additional spectrum for mobile broadband and reform the federal Spectrum Relocation Fund” in the Bipartisan Budget Act deal, unveiled Monday night, she said in a statement. “Spectrum is a finite resource vital to our innovation economy and this agreement makes inroads toward meeting the high demand for mobile broadband and using available spectrum more efficiently.” The spectrum provisions set up future FCC auctions and were believed to be administration priorities in the deal (see 1510270063). An Eshoo spokesman didn’t comment on whether she had any input into the deal’s spectrum provisions. Eshoo called the deal, which the House approved Wednesday, “a remarkable step for a long-term compromise to fund the government.” Another Democrat also praised the provision but saw room for more action. “The budget agreement that we are considering would direct the auction of 30 megahertz of spectrum for commercial use,” said House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., in an opening statement for a Wednesday hearing on broadband deployment. “That is a good start, but we cannot stop there. We should continue our bipartisan work in this committee to authorize more spectrum auctions going forward. By continuing these twin efforts to improve network infrastructure and to free more spectrum, I believe we can meet consumers’ communications needs for years to come.” The White House urged passage of the deal. "The Administration urges the Congress to pass this bipartisan agreement and looks forward to working with the Congress to enact responsible, full‑year FY 2016 appropriations -- without ideological riders -- based on this agreement in order to continue growing the Nation's economy and creating jobs," the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement Wednesday.
The Obama administration may have provided the muscle ensuring inclusion of a spectrum title in the two-year Bipartisan Budget Act deal, released to the public minutes before midnight Monday (see Communications Daily Bulletin Oct. 27). Lawmakers told us the administration exerted its will in the negotiations, which yielded provisions setting up future FCC spectrum auctions with new agency authority and administration-desired flexibility for the Office of Management and Budget Spectrum Relocation Fund.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers are assembling spectrum legislation to overhaul parts of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Spectrum Relocation Fund (SRF), in accordance with pressure from the administration, several staffers on Capitol Hill told us. Bipartisan activity fills both chambers on this front, and Hill staffers say they hope to hitch such an overhaul measure to larger spectrum initiatives coming together.
Carriers are playing games on their level of interest in 600 MHz spectrum in the buildup to the TV incentive auction, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said at a news conference after Thursday’s meeting. After the commission’s Aug. 6 meeting, Wheeler said pointedly it was up to carriers whether they want to play in the auction (see 1508060028). Sprint since said it wouldn't bid and Verizon this week downplayed its need for additional low-band spectrum (see 1510200058). Wheeler was president of CTIA and has a long history in spectrum auctions. “I think we’ll have a very successful auction,” he said, chuckling, noting the auction starts in just 157 days. “I think what we’re seeing right now is the marketing has begun, everyone is positioning a little bit,” he said. “This is all pre-auction shenanigans that one can expect [to] happen in any kind of a marketplace.” Wheeler said the key goal of the auction is getting more spectrum in play for wireless broadband, not bringing in huge revenue. He was asked about broadcaster concerns that the voluntary incentive auction isn’t really voluntary. “There are no armed FCC agents holding guns to heads,” he said. “You are free to decide whether or not you want to participate.”
The FCC approved an NPRM on spectrum frontiers, spectrum at 24 GHz and above for 5G, Thursday. Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O’Rielly were critical of the approach in the NPRM. As some predicted (see 1510190067), they partially dissented. Pai said the NPRM leaves out critical spectrum bands that deserve more discussion. The NPRM tees up for further investigation the 28, 37, 39 and 64-71 GHz bands, the FCC said in a news release. The NPRM wasn't released Thursday.
T-Mobile lobbying expenses plummeted in Q3 compared to what it spent last year. Its latest quarter expenses were $1.37 million, well down from the $1.91 million it spent in 2014’s Q3. The carrier, now No. 3 in the U.S. and often a big spender on lobbying, continues to deploy many firms and counts former lawmakers Henry Waxman and Billy Tauzin among its arsenal of lobbyists.
The FCC will have to reauction $3.5 billion of spectrum licenses that two Dish Network-affiliated designated entities bought in the AWS-3 auction, after the DEs surrendered their claims on the licenses. Dish said in a statement that as a result of selectively defaulting on the licenses the two DEs will pay a penalty to the FCC of more than $500 million. The DEs last month each filed a legal challenge to the FCC order denying them bidding credits in the auction (see 1509180048).