NTIA Sets Up AWS-3 Transition Site

The National Telecommunications & Information Administration has created a Web site with information about the upcoming AWS-3 transition, which is the government spectrum move that will allow the FCC to auction that spectrum in November for wireless broadband.

The commission Monday announced the framework and timeline for that auction, as well as the minimum reserve price in aggregate, for the 65 MHz being auctioned.

NTIA, which oversaw the negotiations to free up the government spectrum, set up the site to provide information including the estimated relocation and sharing costs and timelines for the freeing up of the 1695-1710 MHz and the 1755-1780 MHz spectrum bands being auctioned.

NTIA estimates total relocation and sharing costs for the 1695-1710 MHz band at $527.1 million and for the 1755-1780 MHz band at $4.576 billion.

Most of the federal users are moving out of those bands, but some will be sharing them with commercial users.

The AWS-3 auction, scheduled to begin Nov.13, is the second of three auctions to free up spectrum for mobile wireless. The first was the H Block auction earlier this year, followed by AWS-3, then the broadcast incentive auction next year.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.