FCC: 84 MHz is Reserve, Not Projection

Federal Communications Commission officials clarified that the 84 MHz spectrum/1.25 per pop clearing target in the just-issued public notice on the incentive auction rules is a proposed minimum reserve for a successful auction, not a projection of how much spectrum the FCC expects to clear in the auction.

According to officials speaking on background, suggestions that those targets were a change from the Greenhill report's $1.50 per pop and 126 MHz numbers was not correct. The Greenhill numbers -- which were provided to broadcasters as a best-case payout scenario -- were meant to be a high-end business case for broadcasters to consider, they said, while the 84 Mhz/$1.25 per pop numbers were meant to be a "stick in the ground" minimum for the auction to close and return "fair value for the taxpayer," not a prediction of where the auction was going to end up.