Four days after stage two of the reverse auction closes, the FCC has announced that it will launch the second stage of the forward auction portion of the broadcast spectrum incentive auction.

The FCC has released the initial schedule for the next stage of the forward auction, which is set to begin on Oct. 19.

As the incentive auction is now into the second week of its reverse portion, the number of rounds per day could be bumped up to three as bidders become more comfortable with the process.

The fourth and final forward TV spectrum incentive auction has now closed at $19,632,506,746, but the auction itself is not over. Forward auction winners will next vie for specific frequencies.

The closing bell rang for the FCC’s forward spectrum incentive auction last Friday, Feb. 10, with bidding concluding at $19.6 billion.

The FCC today confirmed that the fourth-stage forward auction will commence tomorrow, Wednesday, Jan. 18 at 10 a.m. Eastern.

Another batch of applications from winning bidders in the forward portion of the broadcast incentive auction have been accepted by the FCC.

Broadcasters will set their final collective asking price for 108 MHz of TV spectrum on Thursday, and bidding by wireless providers for that spectrum will start four days later, on Monday, Dec. 5.