FCC Teeing Up Spectrum Screen Item

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is expected to circulate an order on its proposal to make changes to its local market spectrum aggregation screen, according to sources inside and outside the FCC.

The screen is not a cap, but triggers a deeper dive into whether that amount of concentration in a local market is in the public interest.

According to FCC sources, the screen is expected to draw a distinction between high- and low-band spectrum, which could affect how much low-band spectrum AT&T and Verizon can bid for in the auction since they already between them have the majority of that spectrum, which has long been considered beachfront Wi-Fi spectrum due to its propagation characteristics. There is expected to be a separate screen for spectrum below 1 GHz .