Pai Proposing Oct. 22 RDOF Auction, Among Other Items for Feb. 28 Vote

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai proposes holding Phase I auctions for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund on Oct. 22. Pai circulated a public notice among commissioners Thursday proposing procedures for the Phase I auctions, which would allot up to $16 billion of the $20.4 billion USF rural broadband program, he blogged, outlining his agenda for the Feb. 28 meeting. The RDOF auction procedural PN is one of eight items for what Pai is calling "spectrum month." Drafts are expected to be released Friday. Pai's proposal Thursday to pay up to $9.7 billion to C-band incumbents to free the spectrum for a Dec. 8 auction (see 2002060057) will lead the February meeting.

Stakeholders could weigh in on the proposed geographic areas up for RDOF bidding and whether minimum bidding areas should remain at the census block group level or be expanded to even larger census tracts, an FCC official told us. Larger bidding areas tend to favor larger telecom providers, the official suggested. Much of the PN apparently will resemble bidding procedures found in CAF-II. The RDOF order contains a new clearing round approach that favors higher-performing broadband networks (see 2001090025).

The PN "builds on the successes and lessons learned" from the Connect America Fund Phase II auction to ensure the RDOF Phase auction "is our most successful reverse auction yet," Pai said. Commissioners voted on an RDOF rulemaking last week along party lines (see 2001300001).

The blog lists the TV white spaces proposal (see 2002050051) and the 3.5 GHz auction as the most important items after the C band. Commissioners will vote on final procedures for the citizens broadband radio service auction, to start June 25.

The TV bands “have excellent propagation characteristicsthat make them particularly attractive for delivering communications services over long distance and thus well-suited to deliver wireless broadband services in rural areas,” Pai said of the white spaces item: “I'm proposing targeted changes to our white space device rules to provide improved broadband coverage that will benefit American consumers in rural and unserved areas while still protecting television broadcasters in the band.”

“Under the proposal, farms, schools and rural internet providers will be able to harness the power of unused TV spectrum to extend Wi-Fi and other unlicensed wireless technologies, helping to narrow the homework gap, fuel precision agriculture and extend connectivity to less populated parts of the country,” said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America.

Pai said the FCC will also consider a proposal to share network outage reporting system information during disasters “to state and federal agencies where needed for public safety purposes while also preserving confidentiality.” The FCC already shares the data with the Department of Homeland Security, he said: “Providing additional officials with more information could enhance response efforts and ultimately save lives.”

On the agenda is another of a series of proceedings that would allow use of email instead of the postal system for MVPD/broadcaster communications -- specifically carriage election notices that low-power TV stations and noncommercial educational translator stations send to MVPDs. Pai said broadcasters would have to make only a one-time notification, with future notices required only in the event of a change in election status. Commissioners approved an order in July for such carriage notifications for full-power stations, and an NPRM on allowing MVPDs to electronically notify broadcasters of changes like deleting or repositioning a station or launching new services into a market, instead of paper notification (see 1907100054).

Also up is a draft item seeking comment on dropping or modifying a requirement that cable operators have information about their attributable interests in video programming services in their public inspection files. Pai said the rule originally was about compliance with channel occupancy limits. He noted the FCC order setting those limits was reversed by the March 2001 Time Warner decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (see 0103050002).