The Federal Communications Commission appears to be preparing a new wireless auction. Up for sale will be a portion of the 700Mhz band known as the D-block. It had been offered as part of the wireless auction that took place in 2008 but failed to sell at the time due to some of the conditions tied to its use.
The auction process could start early this summer with the issue of a notice of inquiry. Terms and conditions of the sale would be outlined in time for the actual auction to take place in the first half of 2011.
Smaller carriers such at T-Mobile USA may well be interested in the spectrum to better compete against larger players such as AT&T and Verizon who have already secured substantial 700MHz spectrum for future 4G services. The additional frequency would not only expand coverage but also give it access to the same devices as the larger players as they would all work on the same frequencies. Then again, the larger players could also be interested in securing additional bandwidth as customer mobile device data demands continue to grow.
There could be an interesting wrinkle in this auction. One condition could see the spectrum turned over to emergency services (police, ambulances, etc) in cases of national emergencies.
Source: Reuters