U.S. telecom regulator Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is expecting its upcoming auction of 600 MHz low-band spectrums to be a major success. The airwaves auction is scheduled to begin by Mar 29, 2016.
The 600 MHz airwaves auction, which is popularly known as — Incentive Auction — was initially supposed to have taken place in 2014. However, the auction was postponed owing to the complexity faced in designing the auction rules and related legal issues. In the recently concluded Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has expressed his confidence that this is slated to be the “world's largest spectrum auction that has ever taken place.”
Low-band spectrum is crucial for wireless operators as the signals can be transmitted over longer distances and through brick-and-mortar walls in cities. These airwaves are being freed by TV broadcasters who have no productive use of the same. The 600 MHz broadcast TV spectrums will instead be utilized by wireless operators to expand and strengthen their 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) networks.
The TV broadcasters can either relinquish their license and monetize their spectrum holding that are no longer used by them or agree to move to a different frequency – by the end of Mar 2016. The FCC will resell the acquired spectrums to wireless operators, other cable MSOs (multi service operators) or tech firms through competitive bidding. Notably, the FCC had collected a substantial amount of nearly $45 billion from the AWS-3 spectrum auction that was concluded in Jan 2015.
Major wireless operators such as, Verizon Communications Inc. VZ, AT&T Inc. T and T-Mobile US Inc. TMUS are likely to participate in this auction. However, Sprint Corp. S has already opted out from the auction.
Earlier, small-sized wireless operators such as T-Mobile US and C Spire Wireless had tried to pressurize the FCC to increase the size of the reserve from 30 MHz to 40 MHz or at least half of the spectrum available in a given market. However, the regulator refused to give in to the demand for granting more spectrums as reserve in the upcoming auction.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Be the first to comment