Genachowski: FCC Will Not Release AOM Until Congress Authorizes Auction

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski has indicated that the commission will not release its Allotment Optimization Model (AOM) -- how it will reconfigure broadcast spectrum after an incentive auction -- until after it gets that auction authority from Congress, a signal that did not sit well with at least one congressman and a whole national association worth of broadcasters.

The chairman's timeline came in response to Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), who had pointed out that the FCC had not yet detailed its spectrum plans and asked the chairman to rectify that in a June letter to the Commission. Rep Dingell has been a longtime supporter of broadcasters and a critic of a spectrum reallocation plan he fears could leave few if any broadcast stations in Detroit.

"At this point, the AOM remains very much a work in progress," said Chairman Genachowski in his letter to Dingell, "and I am deeply concerned that disclosure of pre-decisional information would potentially damage the Commission's deliberative processes, as well as result in needless public confusion about the status of the Commission's work on the voluntary incentive auction concept." But he suggested he would be willing to provide more info once Congress has passed legislation authorizing the FCC to compensate broadcasters for giving up spectrum. "Should Congress grant the Commission the ability to conduct voluntary incentive auctions," said Chairman Genachowski, "I commit to you that we will put the then-current (and further refined) version of the AOM out for public comment before setting the rules for the auction. The result will be a full, fair and open process that will allow for a complete review of the methodology, data and assumptions the Commission will ultimately use to implement that authority."

(Aug 22)