NBC Stations Probably Will Provide Spectrum To FCC Wireless Auction

NBC stations are “likely to participate” in the Federal Communications Commission’s airwave auction -- taking spectrum now used by TV outlets and selling it to wireless broadband providers -- Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said. The FCC recently released its opening bid prices for the spectrum. Roberts said he had no “new news” on another widely followed question: whether Comcast’s cable systems are about to offer wireless phone services that depend heavily on Wi-Fi connections as well as Verizon’s network. Many believed that Comcast was about to jump in when the company told analysts that unnamed cable companies have told it that they want to take advantage of a 2012 contract provision: It enables them to pay Verizon a wholesale price to create a so-called “mobile virtual network” that might compete with Verizon’s own service.