Verveer: First Two Auctions Should Cover Most of Statutory Financial Obligations

Phil Verveer, senior counselor to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, said that he expects the FCC's first two spectrum auctions -- H block and AWS -- will raise most, if not all, of the money to fund FirstNet and other financial obligations under the statute.

At the Free State Foundation telecom conference in Washington, Verveer said: "We've had one auction, we're going to have another that is going to help meet the statutory requirements with respect to contributions. We're going to be very close or perhaps even have met them by the time the incentive auction takes place."

Chief among those obligations is the $7 billion that will be needed to fund FirstNet, the interoperable broadband communications network. Verveer told B&C/Multi after the panel that he thought the FCC would get close to covering those obligations with the first two auctions. The H block raised $1.564 billion, so the AWS auction, which is scheduled for the fall, will have to raise north of $5 billion. The incentive auction is slated for mid-2015, with rules of the road expected to be teed up in the spring, perhaps as early as the May public meeting. Verveer also told B&C/Multi that even more a priority in the auction than the dollars and cents was the ability get the spectrum out quickly to the marketplace.