The FCC today said it has been forced to push the planned mid-2015 incentive auction back to early 2016. According to the FCC, court challenges brought about by broadcasters have impacted its original timeframe.
The FCC and broadcasters will face one another in court, with comments due in January 2015 and oral arguments set for later in the year. The FCC doesn’t expect the matter to be resolved until the middle of 2015, which is when it hoped to begin the auction.
The FCC now believes it won’t be able to finalize the incentive auction’s rules until after the middle of the year, and won’t be able to begin accepting applications until fall 2015. It now says it will launch the reverse auction in early 2016.
The incentive auction concerns 600MHz airwaves, which the FCC hopes television broadcasters will sell to mobile network operators in order to make it available for wireless broadband services.
