FCC airwaves auction heats up

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Bidding on a coveted portion of the country's airwaves reached more than $7.8 billion yesterday in a Federal Communications Commission auction that is expected to spur development of new wireless devices for consumers.

The FCC, which hopes to raise at least $10 billion in the auction, has yet to meet the reserve price of $1.3 billion for a particular chunk of spectrum — known as the D Block — whose owner would be required to partner with public safety officials to build out a nationwide emergency network. Any unused portion of the network would be put to commercial use, although first responders would have priority over other wireless traffic.

So far, the only bid for the D Block license was made in the first round of the auction, which started Thursday and is now in its twelfth round. That bid was for $472 million; if the $1.3 billion reserve price isn't met, the commission may attempt another auction, perhaps without some of the attached requirements.

Under commission rules, bids are made anonymously to prevent collusion among bidders.

The FCC is auctioning off the spectrum that will be recovered when television broadcasters transition in February 2009 to exclusively digital signals, which require less spectrum. This particular section, located in the 700 megahertz band, is valuable because it can reach far distances and penetrate walls.

The lack of a comprehensive, nationwide public safety network has been widely publicized in recent years as officials responding to the September 11 terrorist attacks or Hurricane Katrina could not communicate with each other on different networks or with different devices. Regulators have embraced a public-private partnership as the most effective way to construct that network.

Initially, a group called Frontline Wireless was expected to win the D Block license and build out an emergency network, but the group folded earlier this month.

Bids for largest block of spectrum being sold — the C Block — totaled about $3.8 billion yesterday, not far away from a price threshold that would trigger a set of "open access" rules for devices. If C Block bids reach $4.6 billion, the winner of the spectrum must open their network to any device or service. This would be a deviation from current practices under which wireless customers typically access their wireless network with a carrier-approved handset.

The open-access rules were sought by Internet giant Google Inc. They were initially opposed by both Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc., although the two companies now support the idea.

Nearly 1,200 licenses are up for sale to 214 approved bidders.

Nothing on BIG

WBIG-FM (100.3) this week started plugging its plans for Super Bowl Sunday. Those plans entail nothing.

This is the second year in a row that the Rockville rock outlet will air four hours of silence.

"BIG 100.3 will offer no music, no news, no advertisements ... no programming of any kind," the station announced this week.

Washington-area radio listeners who want to tune into the big game can do so at WTEM-AM (980).

• Channel Surfing runs Wednesdays. E-mail krowland@washingtontimes.com.