According to various sources inside and outside the FCC, FCC
chairman Julius Genachowski will include a proposal on FCC incentive auctions
at the commission's September meeting.
Those are the auctions that will combine a reverse auction
to compensate broadcasters for giving up spectrum -- lowest bidder wins -- with
an auction of that reclaimed spectrum to the highest bidder, presumably
wireless companies desperately seeking, or at least talking about desperately
needing, more bandwidth.
The Obama administration has made finding more wireless
broadband spectrum a national priority, which will also include freeing up more
from federal users.
Broadcasters have said they need more info from the FCC on
just how the auctions will be structured before they can decide whether and how
much spectrum to give up, if any.
Among the issues is how broadcasters will be repacked into
smaller spectrum real estate to free up blocks of spectrum or wireless use.
Some broadcaster have argued that they could provide some relief for congested
wireless networks without having to get out of the business by using their
"one-to-many" model to offload wireless traffic at peak periods.
