WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission today set a third-stage clearing target of 108 MHz for the TV incentive spectrum auction. Bidding in the third-stage reverse auction will start Nov. 1, 2016.

“Under the band plan associated with this spectrum clearing target, 80 MHz, or eight paired blocks, of licensed spectrum will be offered in the forward auction on a near-nationwide basis.” the commission said in a Public Notice issued today, and illustrated below. The 108 MHz target places two reassignment blocks beneath Ch. 37, which is reserved for radioastronomy.

(Auction observers have told TV Technology that the next clearing target—84 MHz—would yield a more practical band plan in that Ch. 37 and its buffer spectrum would help separate broadcasting and wireless broadband frequencies, and less spectrum would have to be designated for guard bands—defined in gray hashmarks in the illustration.) In designing the auction, the commission created band plans that considered 11 potential clearing targets, from 42 to 144 MHz.

Clearing targets for each round, according to an FCC spokesman, are determined by a procedure “with objectives of maximizing the number of Category 1 licenses and minimizing overall impairments,” the FCC’s auction term for interference.“We could only “skip” a rung in the ladder if it didn’t achieve these objectives.”

The 108 MHz third-stage clearing target was set after the second-stage forward auction did not close at 114 MHz, nor the first at 126 MHz. The second-stage forward auction—where wireless companies bid to buy TV spectrum—raised $21.5 billion for 90 MHz, less than half of the $56.5 billion at which broadcasters agreed to sell 114 MHz in the second-stage reverse auction.

In the first-stage forward auction, wireless providers bid $22.5 billion for the 100 MHz yielded by the 126 MHz clearing target, falling well short of broadcasters’ $86 billion ask. (The amount of spectrum broadcasters are selling comprises the clearing target. The amount wireless providers bid on comprises the clearing target less the frequencies designated as buffer zones, or guard bands.)

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WASHINGTON —The Federal Communication Commission is restarting the TV spectrum incentive auction at a lower clearing target. The commission threw in the towel on clearing 126 MHz of TV spectrum Tuesday afternoon after 27 rounds of bidding failed to “meet the conditions to trigger an extended round,” according to the FCC’s Public Reporting System. The forward portion of the auction, in which wireless providers bid on surrendered TV channels in 416 geographic “partial economic areas,” commenced Aug. 16 with a revenue goal of more than $88 billion. After 11 days of bidding, the 62 parties vying for the spectrum had committed bids totaling around a quarter of that—$22.45 billion in net proceeds after discounts for rural and small business entities.

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“The incentive auction will continue with Stage 2 at a lower clearing target,” the commission stated without clarifying just what that target might be. The commission designed the auction with multiple band plans based on 11 possible clearing targets, with 126 MHz being the original goal at the outset of the auction. The next lowest clearing target would be 114 MHz, with the TV band ending in Ch. 31, but the commission could feasibly drop it further.

The commission said it would release a public notice detailing the clearing target and the start date of Stage 2, when participating broadcasters will once again provisionally sell their spectrum in a reverse auction. The State 1 reverse auction resulted in aggregate sales of $86 billion, which the forward auction had to cover in addition to funding a $1.75 billion broadcaster relocation fund and the administrative costs of holding the auction—around $88 billion.

The commission said Stage 1 results would remain posted until Thursday, Sept. 1, 5 p.m. ET. Bidders who wish to download their results files will have to do so before then. Forward auction bidders who remained eligible after the last round of Stage 1 will have access to the auction system for Stage 2, the commission said. Impairment data will be available to these bidders shortly before Stage 2 of the reverse auction begins, the commission said.

Forward auction bidders also were reminded that they remain subject to the commission’s quiet period rules “prohibiting certain communications in connection with commission auctions until either the completion of the incentive auction as announced by the commission by public notice, with respect to communications with broadcasters, or until the deadline for a down payment of winning bids, with respect to other forward auction applicants and related parties. All applicants remain subject to the prohibition regardless of developments during the auction process, regardless of whether they qualified to bid or remain eligible to bid in the forward auction.”

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