Competitive Bidding Rules for Auction of AWS-3 Licenses

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION <CFR>47 CFR Parts 1 and 27</CFR> <DEPDOC>[GN Docket Nos. 13-185, 25-70, 25-71; FCC 25-12; FR ID 283609]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Competitive Bidding Rules for Auction of AWS-3 Licenses</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Communications Commission. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Proposed rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission or FCC) seeks comment on changes to its rules regarding eligibility for designated entity bidding credits in auctions for licenses in the in the 1695-1710 MHz, 1755-1780 MHz, and 2155-2180 MHz (AWS-3) bands. The Commission also seeks comment on an update to its competitive bidding rules that would align this rule with the Small Business Act. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments are due on or before March 31, 2025; reply comments are due on or before April 14, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> You may submit comments, identified by GN Docket Nos. 25-70, 25-71, and 13-185, by any of the following methods: • <E T="03">Federal Communications Commission's Website: https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs</E> . Follow the instructions for submitting comments. • <E T="03">People with Disabilities:</E> Contact the FCC to request reasonable accommodations (accessible format documents, sign language interpreters, CART, etc.) by email: <E T="03">FCC504@fcc.gov</E> or phone: 202-418-0530. For detailed instructions for submitting comments and additional information on the rulemaking process, see the <E T="02">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION</E> section of this document. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Lyndsey Grunewald of the Office of Economics and Analytics, Auction Division, at (202) 418-0957 or <E T="03">Lyndsey.Grunewald@fcc.gov,</E> or Yasiman Montgomery of the Office of Economics and Analytics, Auction Division, at (202) 418-0424 or <E T="03">Yasiman.Montgomery@fcc.gov</E> . </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> This is a summary of the Commission's <E T="03">Notice of Proposed Rulemaking</E> ( <E T="03">NPRM</E> ) in GN Docket Nos. 25-70, 25-71, and 13-185, FCC 25-12, adopted on February 27, 2025, and released on February 28, 2025. The full text of this document is available for public inspection at the following internet address: <E T="03">https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-proposes-updates-bidding-rules-aws-3-inventory-auction</E> . <HD SOURCE="HD1">Comment Filing Procedures</HD> Pursuant to 47 CFR 1.415 and1.419, interested parties may file comments and reply comments on or before the dates indicated in the <E T="02">DATES</E> section of this document. Comments should refer to GN Docket Nos. 25-70, 25-71, and 13-185. Comments may be filed using the Commission's Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS). • <E T="03">Electronic Filers:</E> Comments may be filed electronically using the internet by accessing the ECFS: <E T="03">https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/</E> . • <E T="03">Paper Filers:</E> Parties who choose to file by paper must file an original and one copy of each filing for each docket. • Filings can be sent by hand or messenger delivery, by commercial courier, or by the U.S. Postal Service Express Mail. All filings must be addressed to the Secretary, Federal Communications Commission. • Hand-delivered or messenger-delivered paper filings for the Commission's Secretary are accepted between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. by the FCC's mailing contractor at 9050 Junction Drive, Annapolis Junction, MD 20701. All hand deliveries must be held together with rubber bands or fasteners. Any envelopes and boxes must be disposed of before entering the building. • Commercial courier deliveries (any deliveries not by the U.S. Postal Service) must be sent to 9050 Junction Drive, Annapolis Junction, MD 20701. • Filings sent by U.S. Postal Service First-Class Mail, Priority Mail, and Priority Mail Express must be sent to 45 L Street NE, Washington, DC 20554. <E T="03">People with Disabilities:</E> To request materials in accessible formats for people with disabilities (braille, large print, electronic files, audio format) send an email to <E T="03">fcc504@fcc.gov</E> or call the Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau at (202) 418-0530. <E T="03">Ex Parte Rules.</E> The proceeding the <E T="03">NPRM</E> initiates shall be treated as a “permit-but-disclose” proceeding in accordance with the Commission's <E T="03">ex parte</E> rules. Persons making <E T="03">ex parte</E> presentations must file a copy of any written presentation or a memorandum summarizing any oral presentation within two business days after the presentation (unless a different deadline applicable to the Sunshine period applies). Persons making oral <E T="03">ex parte</E> presentations are reminded that memoranda summarizing the presentation must (1) list all persons attending or otherwise participating in the meeting at which the <E T="03">ex parte</E> presentation was made, and (2) summarize all data presented and arguments made during the presentation. If the presentation consisted in whole or in part of the presentation of data or arguments already reflected in the presenter's written comments, memoranda or other filings in the proceeding, the presenter may provide citations to such data or arguments in his or her prior comments, memoranda, or other filings (specifying the relevant page and/or paragraph numbers where such data or arguments can be found) in lieu of summarizing them in the memorandum. Documents shown or given to Commission staff during <E T="03">ex parte</E> meetings are deemed to be written <E T="03">ex parte</E> presentations and must be filed consistent with 47 CFR 1.1206(b). In proceedings governed by 47 CFR 1.49(f) or for which the Commission has made available a method of electronic filing, written <E T="03">ex parte</E> presentations and memoranda summarizing oral <E T="03">ex parte</E> presentations, and all attachments thereto, must be filed through the electronic comment filing system available for that proceeding, and must be filed in their native format ( <E T="03">e.g.,</E> .doc, .xml, .ppt, searchable .pdf). Participants in this proceeding should familiarize themselves with the Commission's <E T="03">ex parte</E> rules. <E T="03">Providing Accountability Through Transparency Act.</E> Consistent with the Providing Accountability Through Transparency Act, Public Law 118-9, a summary of the <E T="03">NPRM</E> will be available on <E T="03">https://www.fcc.gov/proposed-rulemakings</E> . <HD SOURCE="HD1">Synopsis</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Introduction</HD> 1. In the Spectrum and Secure Technology and Innovation Act of 2024, Public Law 118-159, Congress directed the Commission to initiate a system of competitive bidding to grant licenses for spectrum in its inventory in the AWS-3 spectrum bands. Auction proceeds will support the Commission's Supply Chain Reimbursement Program, which implements the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019 by reimbursing eligible advanced communications service providers for their costs to remove, replace, and dispose of untrustworthy Huawei Technologies Company or ZTE Corporation equipment and services. 2. In the <E T="03">NPRM,</E> the Commission takes the first step towards an effective auction by proposing to harmonize outdated rules related to competitive bidding for such licenses with more recent Commission practice in spectrum auctions. The Commission also proposes to update its general part 1 competitive bidding rules to reflect statutory requirements regarding the categorization of an entity as a small business concern. 3. For roughly 30 years, the Commission effectively and efficiently used auctions to assign spectrum licenses to those who value them most highly, and in doing so served the public interest goals of encouraging innovation and promoting competition in wireless services. The Commission's actions today advance those same goals while fulfilling Congress's recent mandate with respect to AWS-3 spectrum. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Background</HD> 4. The term AWS-3 is used by the Commission to refer to spectrum in the 1695-1710 MHz, 1755-1780 MHz, and 2155-2180 MHz bands. In 2014, the Commission assigned licenses for spectrum in the AWS-3 bands through competitive bidding in Auction 97. Nevertheless, there remains spectrum in these bands that is not currently licensed, due to various circumstances, including the selective defaults by two winning bidders on their bids for a significant number of licenses. Pursuant to congressional mandate, the Commission will now offer licenses for such unassigned AWS-3 spectrum in a new auction. 5. Prior to Auction 97, the Commission adopted service-specific rules for licenses within those bands, which specified that such licenses would be subject to competitive bidding and that the competitive bidding procedures contained in part 1 of the Commission's rules would apply, unless otherwise specified. The Commission also adopted AWS-3-specific rules related to the treatment of entities designated by Congress in section 309(j)(3) and (4) of the Communications Act of 1934, as Amended to be given opportunities to participate in spectrum-based services (designated entities or DEs), including eligibility standards for small and very small business bidding credits. 6. Since then, two significant regulatory and legislative developments have left the AWS-3 competitive bidding rules out of step with current Commission practice for spectrum auctions. First, when the Commission updated its part 1 competitive bidding rules in 2015, it amended the eligibility requirements for small business bidding credits, adopted a 15% bidding credit for rural service providers, and est ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 49k characters. 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