[Federal Register: August 12, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 155)]
[Notices]
[Page 49897-49899]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr12au04-71]
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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
[Report No. AUC-04-58-C (Auction No. 58); DA 04-2451]
Revised Inventory for Broadband PCS Spectrum Auction Comment
Sought on Reserve Prices or Minimum Opening Bids and Other Auction
Procedures
AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: This document revises the Auction No. 58 inventory to include
eight additional licenses, and seeks comment on procedural issues
related to the auction of these additional licenses.
DATES: Comments are due on or before August 17, 2004, and reply
comments are due on or before August 20, 2004. Auction No. 58 is
scheduled to begin January 12, 2005.
ADDRESSES: Comments and reply comments must be sent by electronic
[[Page 49898]]
mail to the following address: auction58@fcc.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For legal questions: Scot Mackoul
(202) 418-0660. For general auction questions: Jeff Crooks (202) 418-
0660 or Lisa Stover (717) 338-2888. For service rule questions, contact
the Mobility Division, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, as follows:
Erin McGrath, (202) 418-0620; JoAnn Epps, (202) 418-1342; or Dwain
Livingston, (202) 418-1338.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a summary of the Auction No. 58
Revised License Inventory Public Notice released on August 3, 2004. The
complete text of the Auction No. 58 Revised License Inventory Public
Notice, including attachments is available for public inspection and
copying during regular business hours at the FCC Reference Information
Center, Portals II, 445 12th Street, SW., Room CY-A257, Washington, DC
20554. The Auction No. 58 Revised License Inventory Public Notice may
also be purchased from the Commission's duplicating contractor, Best
Copy and Printing, Inc. (``BCPI''), Portals II, 445 12th Street, SW.,
Room CY-B402, Washington, DC, 20554, telephone (202) 488-5300,
facsimile (202) 488-5563, or you may contact BCPI at its Web site:
http://www.BCPIWEB.com. When ordering documents from BCPI, please
provide the appropriate FCC document number (for example, FCC 00-313
for the C/F Block Sixth Report and Order). The Auction No. 58 Revised
License Inventory Public Notice is also available on the Internet at
the Com mission's Web site: http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/58/.
I. Background
1. In the Auction No. 58 Comment Public Notice, 69 FR 40632 (July
6, 2004), the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (``Bureau'') announced
the auction of 234 licenses in the broadband Personal Communication
Service scheduled to commence on January 12, 2005 (``Auction No. 58'').
The Bureau also sought comment on procedures for the auction of those
licenses. By the Auction No. 58 Revised License Inventory Public
Notice, the Bureau revises the auction inventory to also include eight
D and E block broadband PCS licenses. Under the Commission's Part 24
rules, broadband PCS spectrum in the D and E blocks is not subject to
the entrepreneur eligibility restrictions. These eight additional
licenses, as well as the other licenses to be offered in Auction No.
58, are identified in Attachment A of the Auction No. 58 Revised
License Inventory Public Notice. The Auction No. 58 Revised License
Inventory Public Notice seeks comment on procedural issues related to
the auction of the eight additional D and E block licenses. Parties
that submitted comments and/or reply comments in response to the
Auction No. 58 Comment Public Notice should not resubmit those filings.
Parties should submit comments regarding the auction procedures only to
the extent that they relate to the new licenses included in the auction
inventory.
II. Reserve Price or Minimum Opening Bid
2. For the eight additional D and E block licenses offered in
Auction No. 58, the Bureau proposes to use the same formula for
calculating minimum opening bids as proposed in the Auction No. 58
Comment Public Notice. Specifically, for Auction No. 58, the Bureau has
proposed to calculate minimum opening bids on a license-by-license
basis using formulas based on bandwidth and license area population.
Furthermore, the Bureau has proposed to differentiate these formulas
based on the population of each license area.
Population >= 2,000,000: $0.50 * MHz * License Area Population
Population >= 500,000: $0.25 * MHz * License Area Population
Population < 500,000: $0.15 * MHz * License Area Population
The specific minimum opening bid for each license available in
Auction No. 58 is set forth in Attachment A of the Auction No. 58
Revised License Inventory Public Notice. The Bureau seek comment on
these proposals in the same manner as in the Auction No. 58 Comment
Public Notice, but in this case, only as these proposals relate to the
eight licenses added to the auction inventory. Parties that submitted
comments and/or reply comments regarding the reserve price or minimum
opening bid in response to the Auction No. 58 Comment Public Notice
need not submit new comments unless it relates to the addition of the
eight licenses.
III. Upfront Payments and Initial Maximum Eligibility for Each Bidder
3. For the eight additional D and E block licenses offered in
Auction No. 58, the Bureau proposes to use the same formula for
determining upfront payments as previously proposed in the Auction No.
58 Comment Public Notice. Specifically, for Auction No. 58, the Bureau
has proposed to calculate upfront payments on a license-by-license
basis using a formula based on bandwidth and license area population:
$0.05 * MHz * License Area Population
The specific proposed upfront payment for each license available in
Auction No. 58 is set forth in Attachment A of the Auction No. 58
Revised License Inventory Public Notice. The Bureau further proposed
that the amount of the upfront payment submitted by a bidder will
determine the maximum number of bidding units on which a bidder may
place bids. This limit is a bidder's initial eligibility. Each license
is assigned a specific number of bidding units equal to the upfront
payment listed in Attachment A of the Auction No. 58 Revised License
Inventory Public Notice, on a bidding unit per dollar basis. This
number does not change as prices rise during the auction. A bidder's
upfront payment is not attributed to specific licenses. Rather, a
bidder may place bids on any combination of licenses as long as the
total number of bidding units associated with those licenses does not
exceed its current eligibility. Eligibility cannot be increased during
the auction. Thus, in calculating its upfront payment amount, an
applicant must determine the maximum number of bidding units it may
wish to bid on (or hold high bids on) in any single round, and submit
an upfront payment covering that number of bidding units. The Bureau
seeks comment on these proposals as they relate to the eight licenses
added to the auction inventory.
IV. Other Auction Procedural Issues
4. In the Auction No. 58 Comment Public Notice, the Bureau also set
forth and sought comment on the following proposals relating to auction
structure and bidding procedures: (i) Simultaneous multiple-round
auction design; (ii) activity rules; (iii) activity rule waivers and
reducing eligibility; (iv) information relating to auction delay,
suspension or cancellation; (v) round structure; (vi) minimum
acceptable bids and bid increments; (vii) high bids and tied bids;
(viii) information regarding bid withdrawal and bid removal; and (ix)
auction stopping rule. For the additional licenses in Auction No. 58,
the Bureau proposes to use the same auction structure and bidding
procedures proposed in the Auction No. 58 Comment Public Notice. The
Bureau seeks comment on these proposals as they relate to the eight
additional licenses included in Attachment A of the Auction No. 58
Revised License Inventory Public Notice.
V. Conclusion
5. Comments are due on or before August 17, 2004, and reply
comments
[[Page 49899]]
are due on or before August 20, 2004. The Bureau requires that all
comments and reply comments be filed electronically. Comments and reply
comments must be sent by electronic mail to the following address:
auction58@fcc.gov. The electronic mail containing the comments or reply
comments must include a subject or caption referring to Auction No. 58
Comments and the name of the commenting party. The Bureau requests that
parties format any attachments to electronic mail as Adobe[reg]
Acrobat[reg] (pdf) or Microsoft[reg] Word documents. Copies of comments
and reply comments will be available for public inspection during
regular business hours in the FCC Reference Information Center, Room
CY-A257, 445 12th Street, SW., Washington, DC 20554. In addition, the
Bureau requests that commenters fax a courtesy copy of their comments
and reply comments to the attention of Kathryn Garland at (717) 338-
2850.
6. This proceeding has been designated as a ``permit-but-disclose''
proceeding in accordance with the Commission's ex parte rules. Persons
making oral ex parte presentations are reminded that memoranda
summarizing the presentations must contain summaries of the substance
of the presentations and not merely a listing of the subjects
discussed. More than a one or two sentence description of the views and
arguments presented is generally required. Other rules pertaining to
oral and written ex parte presentations in permit-but-disclose
proceedings are set forth in Sec. 1.1206(b) of the Commission's rules.
Federal Communications Commission.
Gary Michaels,
Deputy Chief, Auctions and Spectrum Access Division, WTB.
[FR Doc. 04-18359 Filed 8-11-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-P