T-Mobile Proposes Sliding Screen for Incentive Auctions

T-Mobile has a plan for part of the broadcast incentive auctions -- the one where, presumably, wireless companies primarily bid for reclaimed spectrum -- and it involves a sliding spectrum screen depending on how the bidding goes.

T-Mobile is recommending that FCC auction rules include a built-in sliding screen, which it pitches as a way to provide a real-world test of such a screen applied to auctions in general. "By relying on actual bids rather than predictions of bidder behavior, the Dynamic Market Rule helps remove any risk that revenue targets for clearing broadcasters and funding the FirstNet public safety network will not be met," the company says. T-Mobile calls it a "Dynamic Market Rule billed as a "seamless" way to ensure against "excessive concentration" of low-band spectrum. Under the rule, bidding would begin with "spectrum aggregation" limits, with a carve-out that would allow AT&T and Verizon, the two largest carriers, to bid on a block of 5 MHz in markets where they exceed the screen -- which would be one-third of the low-band spectrum in a market. If the FCC meets its revenue target, that auction could close. But if not, the screen would be gradually relaxed, and ultimately lifted altogether.