Spectrum auction
With a well-designed auction, resources are allocated efficiently to the parties that value them the most, the government securing revenue in the process.
In the past decade, telecommunications has turned into a highly competitive industry where companies are competing to buy valuable spectrum.
With more providers in the mobile industry, the competition during spectrum auctions has increased due to more demand from consumers.
[12] In August 2011, Canada made the switch from analog to digital television, freeing up spectrum in the 700 MHz band for other uses.
[13] Christian Paradis, Minister of Industry at the time, was quoted as hoping that the auctioning of these two bands (sometimes referred to as "prime location") would help foster more competition in the telecom sector, particularly the wireless sector, where Canada is just beginning to feel the effects of competition from new wireless companies from the 2008 auction.
[14] In order to maximize compatibility and prevent cross-border interference, the FCC in the United States (America's broadcast regulator) and ISED agreed on August 14, 2015, to coordinate their frequencies in their border zone.
[15][16] From 2000 to 2007–31 to 2000-08-18, the German government conducted an auction for 12 frequency blocks for the new UMTS mobile telephony standard.
[18] Potential service providers were required to seek foreign partners, as the Department of Telecom (DoT) felt that no Indian company alone had the financial means to enter the industry.
[19] On 2012-11-15 the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) announced the results of its multi-band spectrum auction (Primarily for 4G (LTE)).
Most frequencies from the 1800 MHz band had been already used to provide public electronic communication services in the Slovak republic.
Most of the frequencies were sold to the three existing national providers (Orange, Slovak Telekom, Telefónica Slovakia).
Successful auctioneers undertook the obligation to enter into a contract with any parties interested in national roaming or wholesale offer.
On 2008-05-08 the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) concluded an electronic 16-day simultaneous multiple-round ascending auction for nine 15-year 4G-licenses; for a total bandwidth of 190 MHz in the 2.6 GHz band.
[33] In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) conducts auctions of licenses for electromagnetic spectrum.
The FCC has been conducting competitive auctions since 1994 rather than assigning spectra through comparative hearings under which the specific merits of each applicant is litigated, or through lotteries.
When initially planning and designing the spectrum auction, major telephone companies and the federal government relied on the input of various theorists including Paul Milgrom, Charles Plott, Barry Nalebuff, Preston McAfee, and John McMillan among others.
To be considered a qualified [bidder] by the commission, companies or individuals have to submit an application and an upfront downpayment.
[38] Wilson and Paul Milgrom of Stanford University proposed that all auctions should end simultaneously, when there is no new bid on a license.
Those goals include ensuring efficient use of the spectrum, promoting economic opportunity and competition, avoiding excessive concentration of licenses, preventing the unjust enrichment of any party, and fostering the rapid deployment of new services, as well as recovering for the public a portion of the value of the spectrum.
"[39] Despite the apparent success of spectrum auctions, important disadvantages limiting efficiency and revenues are demand reduction and collusive bidding.
[citation needed] The foregoing notwithstanding, due to the complicated structure of spectrum auctions, it is not easy to identify collusive from non-collusive bidding, although simple analyses of bid behavior can provide an important basis for recommended changes to the rules and structure of the auctions.
In the 2007 700 MHz auction, the FCC required the winning bidder of the C Block to comply with open platform conditions, "allow[ing] customers, device manufacturers, third-party application developers, and others to use or develop the devices and applications of their choice, subject to certain conditions.
[42] Licenses available were from block A and B of the spectrum and included: In mid 2015, the FCC began the 600 MHz incentive auction.
This spectrum is "valuable" because of "high quality wireless airwaves which penetrate walls" and work better over long-distance than higher frequency spectra.
[43] AT&T and Verizon control the majority of the high quality spectrum less than 1 Gigahertz, while Sprint and T-Mobile hold much less.
[47] Lawrence Chu, an advisor to the FCC during the bidding process, considered the auction a success while admitting that "there will be some people disappointed on the broadcaster side.
"[48] On November 14, 2018, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began auctioning spectrum for 5G services for the first time.
Along with Cox Communications, Dish Network, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Windstream and other telecom companies bid for licenses in the 24 GHz auction.
Dish Network, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Windstream and Frontier Communications were among the companies bidding for 28 GHz licenses in the FCC's so-called “millimeter-wave” auction.
[54] The Bureau will notify participants of any such delay, suspension, or cancellation by public notice and/or through the FCC auction bidding system's announcement function.
