AWS-3 auction winners could face lots of spectrum-coordination hitches

Winners in the upcoming AWS-3 auction may find themselves confronting years of spectrum-coordination challenges as they work to finesse their way through incumbent relocation and frequency-sharing issues, according to Chris Hardy, general manager of CommScope subsidiary Comsearch.

Hardy, who is also president and CEO of Comsearch Government Solutions, said potential bidders would be well served by knowing what they are getting into before they start making offers for the AWS-3 spectrum. In terms of spectrum coordination, U.S. regulators "seem to be going in order of difficulty," said Hardy. "PCS was fairly tame compared to AWS-1, and now AWS-3 is going to be extremely complex," he said.