Snow or No, FCC Auction Still A Go: Source

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Neither snow, nor more snow, will apparently stay the FCC from getting spectrum into the wireless market.

According to an FCC source, the H Block spectrum auction is still scheduled to start tomorrow--Jan. 22--despite an East Coast snowstorm that closed government offices Tuesday in Washington and Pennsylvania--the FCC's Gettysburg office is auction central.

The H block is the first of three spectrum auctions, the last being the broadcaster incentive auction scheduled for mid-year 2015.

The spectrum auctions have the dual purpose of freeing up more spectrum for wireless broadband, an Obama Administration priority, and paying for FirstNet, the interoperable first responder broadband network. The FCC is expecting to get a healthy down payment from the auction.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.