[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 155 (Thursday, August 12, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49897-49899]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-18539]


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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: [email protected].

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: 
[email protected]. 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. 04-18539 Filed 8-11-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-P