Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler has postponed the consideration of two items originally on the agency’s Thursday meeting agenda.
One would establish the bidding procedures for next year’s auction of the wireless airwaves known as spectrum. The other is a vote on Wheeler’s recommendation to keep the size of the spectrum reserved for smaller carriers during the auction at its current level. Both will be voted on at the commission’s August meeting.
“In the spirit of cooperation that has marked our work together on the incentive auctions, I am today postponing Commission consideration of this order and the related reconsideration of the mobile spectrum holdings order until the Commission’s next regularly scheduled meeting on August 6,” Wheeler wrote to Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), chairman of the Energy committee’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee, in a letter obtained by The Hill.
“I believe that even with this delay we will be able to stay on course for the first quarter of 2016.”
During the auction, the FCC will buy spectrum from television stations and sell it to wireless providers. The significance of spectrum has grown with the continued growth of the smartphone market.
The dispute that led to the removal of the items concerns a block of spectrum called the “duplex gap.” The gap is the space between the bands of spectrum dedicated to downloading and uploading data to and from mobile devices. The FCC has floated the idea of placing television stations in the gap if they run out of space in the band already reserved for broadcasters. Opponents want the gap to remain open for other uses.
Walden and Upton wrote to Wheeler on Tuesday asking him to delay the procedural agenda item after commission staff released data related to the duplex gap last Friday.
“The revised timeline and additional data place into the record limits the commissioner’s ability to participate during the open meeting or make an informed vote, casting a shadow over an innovative and novel auction that could be this commission’s legacy,” they wrote.
In his letter, Wheeler defended the data.
“We believe the simulations and associated data we released last week make clear the importance of preserving the duplex gap option,” he said.
Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai praised Wheeler’s decision.
“These incentive auction issues are complicated and highly technical. We must make difficult and important judgments,” he said in a statement. “So we should not be forced to review comments less than 24 hours before we vote on a matter that will have long-term consequences for the future of our nation’s broadcast and wireless industries. This is not the kind of deliberative process that will lead to good decisions.”
Wheeler also postponed the more high-profile vote on whether to expand the block of the spectrum saved for smaller carriers. Though they set it at 30 MHz last year, T-Mobile and others had asked the agency to expand it to 40 MHz. Wheeler has recommended keeping the reserve at 30 MHz, while T-Mobile has launched an aggressive campaign to get the public and lawmakers behind expanding it to 40 MHz.
Wheeler’s proposed reforms to a program that gives discounts on spectrum to small businesses will remain on the Thursday agenda.