FCC Clarifies Auction Aignment Phase

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission today clarified the procedure for the assignment phase of the auction, where winning bidders of generic frequency blocks will be able to bid on specific frequencies.

All bidders with winnings from the clock phase are eligible to participate in the assignment phase, the commission announced on the Incentive Auction Dashboard. Within a few business days after the end of the clock phase, we expect to release a public notice announcing when bidding in the assignment phase will begin and providing information on assignment phase bidder education materials.

These materials will include an online tutorial and an assignment phase bidding system user guide. The assignment phase tutorial will be similar the clock phase tutorial-the clock phase being the one currently in progress, where bidders continue to bid on spectrum blocks.

The tutorial will review assignment-phase procedures and give examples of system calculations as well as an overview of the bidding system. The user guide is intended to provide familiarity with the functionality of the assignment phase bidding system, which is different from the one used for the clock phase, the commission said.

About a week after the bidder education materials are posted online, auction staff will open a short preview period of the assignment-phase system, allow winning bidders to log in, view the schedule and download bidding options.

After the preview period, there will be a practice assignment-phase auction followed by a mock assignment-phase auction. Details about the procedure for both will be provided in a public notice following the close of the clock phase. Once the practice and mock auctions are done, actual assignment-phase bidding will begin.

Organizers said they expect assignment-phase bidding to take several weeks given the number of PEAs that must be assigned.

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