FCC Chairman Wheeler: Incentive Auction Is on Course and Speed

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler reiterated that the FCC is on track to wrap up the incentive auction framework by the end of 2015 and hold the incentive auction at the beginning of 2016.

Chairman Wheeler said, "we are on course and speed...Nothing has changed." He was asked if there should be a pause to give likely bidders like Verizon and AT&T a chance to catch their financial breath given that the AWS-3 wireless spectrum auction just closed with over $44 billion bid, most of it thought to have come from the two largest carriers. Chairman Wheeler said the winning bidders were getting spectrum that they could raise revenue on and had "bid on a budget" knowing that the incentive auction was coming up. "The CFOs of these companies didn't just fall off the turnip truck," he said. He said he has been on the other side, and that the companies that bid were "bidding to a plan." He also said that while the $44 billion is a large "absolute number," it is not so large in relative terms compared to revenue, cash flow and earnings for the wireless industry. "I think they got a deal," he said.