WASHINGTON—The FCC has pulled the spectrum incentive auction order off the agenda for its Thursday morning meeting, meaning the item has already been voted on by the commissioners.
As B&C first reported May 7, the order denies, with a few technical exceptions, a number of petitions to reconsider parts of its incentive auction framework, including from broadcasters commercial and noncommercial.
The FCC will keep with a variable band plan—potentially freeing up different amounts of spectrum in different markets; will use the updated OET-69 methodology and data in its TVStudy software for gauging interference and determining coverage areas for TV stations after the auction; will not necessarily resolve international coordination issues with Mexico and Canada before the auction; and will cap moving costs at $1.75 billion.
Multiple sources said the FCC has decided not to vote on whether to hold to a 39-month hard date for TV stations to move to new channels after the auction, which it had also proposed.
The FCC is said to be dealing with that separately. (John Eggerton has the rest of the story at B&C.)
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