FCC sets date for digital switchover UHF spectrum sale

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to start auctioning the UHF spectrum that will be freed by the digital switchover from as early as January next year according to a report from the UK Digital TV group.

From http://www.dtg.org.uk/news/news.php?class=countries&subclass=0&id=2642

US media regulator the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will start auctioning spectrum due to be liberated by America's digital switchover from January 16, 2008.

A total of 1,099 licences in the 700 MHz band will be up for
grabs, said the FCC as it published rules for the auction on its web site.

Under the Digital Television and Public Safety Act of 2005 the FCC has to start the auction—which could raise $15bn for the US Treasury—by no later than January 28, 2008. The US switches to digital-only TV a year later on February 17, 2009.

Earlier this month the FCC unveiled rules on how spectrum will be used, and handed a partial victory to Google and other possible US telecommunications market entrants by stipulating that a third of the spectrum due to be sold must
be offered on an "open access" basis, supporting any mobile phone, broadband device, or application (such as e-mail and video services) that consumers want to use.

The move breaks the power enjoyed by mobile operators to dictate which devices and applications are used on their networks, but the FCC stopped short of forcing the winner of a third of the spectrum to make bandwidth available on a
wholesale basis, a provision that Google, backed by hi-tech giants, had lobbied hard for.

Digital TV Group
http://www.dtg.org.uk/

FCC spells out rules for 700 MHz auction
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/august2007/
fcc_700mhz_auction.htm

Google mulls UHF spectrum auction bid
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/july2007/
google_spectrum_bid.htm