Republican Leaders Pan Justice Take on Incentive Auctions

The Republican leadership of the House Commerce Committee has told the Federal Communications Commission that if it follows the Justice Department's suggestions for the incentive auction, it may not get enough money to fully compensate broadcasters for giving up spectrum, potential leading to a failed auction.

Justice weighed in at the FCC saying it should take into account the differences in spectrum value -- lower bands are more valuable for cell service than higher -- when deciding how much spectrum in a market one company should be allowed to hold. It also suggested that the getting the reclaimed broadcast spectrum into the hands of competitors to Verizon and AT&T would likely be its highest and best use. Led by Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Communications Subcommittee Chair Greg Walden (R-OR), a half dozen Republican signatories to the letter said that putting restrictions on bidders in the upcoming broadcast incentive auctions would reduce the size of bids and "could lead to a complete failure of the auction," including construction of an interoperable public safety network. The legislators said that when they came up with the legislation establishing the incentive auction, they wanted it to make more spectrum available to wireless carriers, but that they also expected the auctions to generate enough revenue to cover broadcasters and the first responder network and deficit reduction. Justice's suggestions could threaten that goal, they said.