The FCC on Thursday said it is planning to double the clock price increment for bidding in its forward spectrum auction.
Following the last round of bidding on Friday, the FCC said the price increment will raise from a fixed five percent increase each round to a 10 percent increase. The increment’s implementation will be seen in the first round of bidding on Monday, the FCC said.
The move comes on the heels of the FCC’s achievement of its first auction goal on Wednesday evening when bidding passed the threshold to meet its Auction Proceeds target of $15.9 billion. The change will be the FCC’s second tweak to the bidding proceedings, following its restructuring of the bidding rounds from two two-hour rounds to three one-hour rounds earlier this week.
As of the end of Round 16 on Thursday morning, though, the FCC’s second target of $88.4 billion in net proceeds remained unsatisfied with just $16.5 billion achieved.
Analysts have said it is all but certain a second stage of the auction will be necessary to reduce the second target figure, and some have speculated it could take up to four stages for the reverse auction target to match forward auction bidding.
Filed Under: Telecommunications (Spectrum)