FCC SETS PLAN TO AUCTION STATION AIRWAVES

The agency aims to make additional spectrum available to wireless companies.

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators have set the date and final rules for a unique, complex effort to buy some TV station airwaves and auction them to wireless companies to provide more mobile services.

The so-called broadcast incentive auction will begin March 29, a little more than four years after Congress authorized the innovative approach in hopes of making more spectrum available for wireless Internet and generating billions of dollars in revenue for the government, the Federal Communications Commission said Thursday.

The auction is designed to lure some broadcasters to give up their valuable spectrum by offering to share some of the money the government will receive by auctioning the rights to use the airwaves to wireless providers.

Broadcasters and wireless companies will be able to start submitting applications this fall to participate in the auction, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said.

But some of the complicated auction procedures are controversial. The rules were approved on a partisan 3-2 vote by the Democraticcontrolled agency.

To promote competition, a key auction provision limits the ability of the dominant wireless providers — AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. — to buy licenses to use the new airwaves in some markets.

The FCC’s Republicans, Ajit Pai and Michael O’Rielly, voted against most of the auction rules set Thursday. They warned that the rules would limit the amount of money raised.

“It’s unfair to the American people,” O’Rielly said. “This is their resource we’re auctioning off, and we’re not getting full value.”

All five commissioners voted Thursday to reject a push from T-Mobile to set aside even more airwaves for smaller wireless providers.

Verizon said T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel Corp. have the money to compete in the auction without extra assistance from beneficial rules.

“We did not believe they needed set-asides from the FCC at the expense of American taxpayers in the first place, and they certainly didn’t need any additional help on top of that,” Verizon spokesman Ed McFadden said.

T-Mobile Chief Executive John Legere said the company still was “committed to showing up, playing hard and being successful at the auction.”

As part of the final auction rules, the FCC opened the door to moving TV stations in Los Angeles and some other markets into portions of the airwaves reserved for wireless microphones and mobile downloads. The decision was made because the FCC wants to leave some broadcast airwaves open for Wi-Fi and other free, unlicensed uses.

The National Assn. of Broadcasters said the decision would cause “decades of interference disputes.”

‘It’s unfair to the American people. This is their resource we’re auctioning off, and we’re not getting full value.’

— Michael O’Rielly, an FCC commissioner who

voted against the plan