[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 123 (Tuesday, June 26, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38061-38062]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-15458]


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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

[AU Docket No. 12-25; DA 12-947]


Mobility Fund Phase I Auction Supplemental Short-Form 
Instructions and Other Information

AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In this document, the Commission's Wireless Telecommunications 
and Wireline

[[Page 38062]]

Competition Bureaus provide supplemental filing instructions for the 
Mobility Fund Phase I Auction for completing FCC Form 180, announce the 
availability of certain updated files and provide other information 
regarding Auction 901.

DATES: Short-Form applications are due prior to 6 p.m. on July 11, 
2012.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, 
Auctions and Spectrum Access Division: For Mobility Fund Phase I 
supplemental filing instructions: Lisa Stover at (717) 338-2868.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a summary of the Mobility Fund Phase 
I Supplemental Public Notice (Supplemental Filing Instructions Public 
Notice) released on June 15, 2012. The Supplemental Filing Instructions 
Public Notice and its associated attachment as well as related 
Commission documents may be purchased from the Commission's duplicating 
contractor, Best Copy and Printing, Inc. (BCPI), 445 12th Street SW., 
Room CY-B402, Washington, DC 20554, telephone 202-488-5300, fax 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, DA 12-947. The 
Supplemental Filing Instructions Public Notice and related documents 
also are available on the Internet at the Commission's Web site: http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/901/ or by using the search function for AU 
Docket No. 12-25 on the Commission's Electronic Comment Filing System 
(ECFS) Web page at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/ecfs/.
    1. On May 2, 2012, the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and 
Wireline Competition Bureau (the Bureaus) announced the procedures for 
the Mobility Fund Phase I auction scheduled for September 27, 2012 
(Auction 901). The Bureaus provide supplemental filing instructions for 
completing FCC Form 180, announce the availability of certain updated 
files, and provide additional information regarding certain details of 
Auction 901.

Short-Form Application (FCC Form 180) Filing Instructions

    2. In the Auction 901 Procedures Public Notice, 77 FR 32092, May 
31, 2012, the Bureaus provided general instructions for completing FCC 
Form 180 and stated that they would provide additional information 
about accessing, completing, and viewing the FCC Form 180 in a separate 
public notice. The instructions provided in Attachment A to the 
Supplemental Filing Instructions Public Notice supplement those 
contained in the Auction 901 Procedures Public Notice.

Updated Files

    3. In the Auction 901 Procedures Public Notice, the Bureaus 
identified census blocks eligible for the Mobility Fund Phase I support 
to be offered in Auction 901. The Bureaus also released files 
containing detailed information about these census blocks. In the 
Auction 901 Additional Data Formats Public Notice, (DA 12-721 released 
May 8, 2012) the Bureaus announced the availability of an additional 
file with information about the biddable geographic areas for Auction 
901. In the Supplemental Filing Instructions Public Notice, the Bureaus 
announce the availability of updated versions of some of these files, 
which are available via the link for Attachment A Files at http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/901/. Specifically, the Biddable Items file, 
the All Eligible Census Blocks file, and five of the state spreadsheets 
have been updated. In the Biddable Items file, the header of one of the 
columns has been changed from Pop10 to Population, and the header of 
another column has been changed from Tribal Area to Tribal Land. These 
changes were made to be more consistent with how the data will be 
presented in the FCC Auction System. Additionally some of the entries 
in the Tribe and Tribal Land columns have been changed. In the previous 
version of the file, the name of any tribe or Tribal land that should 
have included an apostrophe erroneously included two apostrophes. The 
new file fixes this.
    4. The apostrophe anomaly also affected the All Eligible Census 
Blocks file and five of the state spreadsheets. Consequently, the All 
Eligible Census Blocks file and the state spreadsheets for Alaska, 
Arizona, Idaho, Michigan, and Montana have been revised.

Additional Details for Determining Winning Bids

    5. In the Auction 901 Procedures Public Notice, the Bureaus 
described the approach they would use to determine winning bids, 
including procedures to ensure that at most one bid per geographic area 
is awarded, the use of random numbers to address tied bids, and the 
Bureaus procedures when remaining funds are insufficient to support the 
next lowest bid. The Bureaus clarify those procedures, in particular 
with respect to the Bureaus use of random selection numbers, so that 
funds may be used to support new service to as many road miles as 
possible within the Bureaus' $300 million budget.
    6. For each submitted bid, the Bureaus will assign a random 
selection number, which they will use in two ways: To break any tied 
bids for the same area, and to establish an order in which they will 
assign bids with the same dollars per road mile amount for different 
areas when the remaining funds are insufficient to award support to all 
the bids in that amount. The Bureaus will also calculate a gross dollar 
support amount associated with the bid, equal to the gross bid amount 
times the number of qualifying road miles in the area. To ensure that 
they award support to at most one bid per geographic area, the Bureaus 
will first compare net bids (taking into account bidding credits where 
applicable) for each biddable area, and for each area, retain the 
lowest net bid for further consideration. If there are ties for the 
lowest bid for an area, the Bureaus will retain the bid with the 
highest selection number.
    7. To select winning bids, the Bureaus will then compare the 
retained bids for all areas by sorting them in ascending order of net 
bid amount (dollars per road mile) and descending order of selection 
number. The Bureaus will award support to bids in this order, starting 
with the lowest bid/highest selection number, as long as remaining 
funds are sufficient to cover the gross dollar support amount of the 
bid. If a bid cannot be awarded because its gross dollar support would 
exceed the remaining funds, the Bureaus will skip the bid and consider 
the next lowest bid/highest selection number, awarding as much support 
as possible within the Bureaus' $300 million budget.

Federal Communications Commission.
Gary Michaels,
Deputy Chief, Auctions and Spectrum Access Division, WTB.
[FR Doc. 2012-15458 Filed 6-25-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-P