PUBLIC NOTICE Federal Communications Commission 445 12th St., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20554 News Media Information: 202-418-0500 Internet: www.fcc.gov TTY: 888-835-5322 DA 16-587 May 27, 2016 WIRELESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS BUREAU AND INCENTIVE AUCTION TASK FORCE ANNOUNCE THE AVAILABILITY OF INCENTIVE AUCTION INFORMATION THROUGH THE INCENTIVE AUCTION PUBLIC REPORTING SYSTEM AU Docket No. 14-252 GN Docket No. 12-268 WT Docket No. 12-269 1. The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (Bureau) and the Incentive Auction Task Force today announce the availability of the Incentive Auction Public Reporting System (PRS) and describe the bidding information that will be available through the PRS as the reverse auction (Auction 1001) and forward auction (Auction 1002) of the broadcast incentive auction progress. The public can access the PRS directly at auctiondata.fcc.gov and from a link in the Results section of the Auction 1001 website (www.fcc.gov/auctions/1001) and the Auction 1002 website (www.fcc.gov/auction/1002). 2. During the incentive auction, publicly available bidding and timing information for the incentive auction is accessible through the PRS. Because the PRS will chronicle the course of both the reverse and forward auctions, the amount and nature of the information displayed will increase and evolve as the auctions progress. Below we provide an overview of the sections of the PRS and the information that will be reported as the auctions proceed, consistent with our information disclosure procedures for the incentive auction. 3. Dashboard. The Dashboard of the PRS will include information about the current stage of the incentive auction, including the status (e.g., reverse auction has not yet begun, the reverse auction is in progress, etc.), the clearing target, and the amount of licensed spectrum available. The Dashboard will also display information about progress toward meeting the final stage rule and indicate when it has been met. 4. During the clock phase of the reverse auction, the Dashboard will display the current bidding schedule. At the conclusion of the reverse auction, the Dashboard will display the total cost of clearing for the current stage. During the clock phase of the forward auction, the Dashboard will display the bidding schedule and round-by-round updates of the auction proceeds.1 During the forward auction assignment phase, the Dashboard will indicate that the assignment rounds are in progress and will post the final auction proceeds after the assignment phase is complete. 1 See Application Procedures for Broadcast Incentive Auction Scheduled to Begin on March 29, 2016; Technical Formulas for Competitive Bidding, Public Notice, 30 FCC Rcd 11034, 11181-214, Appendix G (WTB 2015) (Auction 1000 Application Procedures Public Notice) (modified by Erratum (rel. Mar. 4, 2016)) (describing how bids are processed and auction proceeds are calculated). Federal Communications Commission DA 16-587 2 5. Reverse Auction. The Reverse Auction section of the PRS will provide announcements related to the reverse auction that have been made public.2 6. Forward Auction. In addition to providing public announcements related to the forward auction clock and assignment phases, the Forward Auction section of the PRS will provide a Product Status screen. The Product Status screen will be updated after every forward auction clock round for each product—that is, for each category of the blocks in each Partial Economic Area. The screen will include opening and clock prices for the round, aggregate demand and posted price after bid processing, and the clock price for the next round.3 This data will also be available for download.4 7. PRS User Guide. We have posted a Public Reporting System user guide that describes the features of the PRS, how to navigate the PRS, and the information that will be displayed during the reverse and forward auctions. This user guide is available on the Commission’s Auction 1001 and Auction 1002 web pages through a link in the Education section, and it will remain available throughout the course of the incentive auction. 8. As is typical of Commission auctions, we will make auction bidding information public through the PRS as soon as possible, consistent with the Commission’s rules, polices, and procedures established to protect the competitiveness of the auction, as well as applicable statutory obligations. For the reverse auction, as required by statute and codified in its rules, the Commission must take reasonable steps to keep confidential all Commission-held data of applicants relating to their participation in the reverse auction, including their identities, at least until the release of the Channel Reassignment PN, when channel reassignments will be made public.5 The Commission further has provided in its rules for confidential treatment with respect to non-winning bids and bidders in the reverse auction for another two years after the close of the auction.6 9. For the forward auction, the Commission will limit the availability of bidder-specific forward auction bidding information, as it has in all recent Commission spectrum license auctions.7 After 2 Qualified bidders for Auction 1001 will also have access to additional auction features and non-public information through the Auction System, as explained in the “FCC Incentive Auction Reverse Auction Bidding System User Guide” and the materials sent to qualified bidders. See also Broadcast Auction Scheduled to Begin March 29, 2016; Procedures for Competitive Bidding in Auction 1000, Including Initial Clearing Target Determination, Qualifying to Bid, and Bidding in Auctions 1001 (Reverse) and 1002 (Forward), Public Notice, 30 FCC Rcd 8975, 9029-32, paras. 98-107 (2015) (Auction 1000 Bidding Procedures Public Notice) (describing the information that will be available through the Auction System to qualified bidders in the reverse auction). 3 Qualified bidders for Auction 1002 will also have access to additional auction features and non-public information through the Auction System. See Auction 1000 Bidding Procedures Public Notice, 30 FCC Rcd at 9043-44, para. 134 (describing the information that will be available through the Auction System to qualified bidders in the forward auction). Additional information related to qualified bidders for Auction 1002 will be made available in coming weeks. We will provide these materials sufficiently in advance of the applicable phases of the auction so that participants have adequate time to become familiar with them before the beginning of each phase. 4 Specifications for downloading the file are given in the PRS User Guide. The format of the file is the same as the Product Status file as specified in the Forward Auction Clock Phase File Formats document, available on the Auction 1002 website under the “Data” section, except that it includes all the products in the auction. 5 See 47 USC § 1452(a)(3); Expanding the Economic and Innovation Opportunities of Spectrum Through Incentive Auctions, Report and Order, 29 FCC Rcd 6567, 6783-84, paras. 527-29 (2014) (Incentive Auction Report and Order) (modified by Erratum (rel. June 3, 2014)). 6 See Auction 1000 Bidding Procedures Public Notice, 30 FCC Rcd at 9032, para. 106. 7 See Auction 1000 Bidding Procedures Public Notice, 30 FCC Rcd at 9046, para. 138 n. 433 (explaining that the Commission will not make publicly available until after the auction concludes: the Partial Economic Areas that an applicant selects for bidding in its application, the amount of any upfront payment made by or on behalf of the applicant, any information on any applicant’s bidding eligibility, including whether an applicant is eligible to bid on (continued….) Federal Communications Commission DA 16-587 3 the close of the auction and as soon as feasible after the release of a public notice announcing the results of the forward auction, information previously withheld under the limited information procedures for Auction 1002 will be available in the PRS. Further, the publicly available applications to participate in the forward auction will display the license areas that were selected by each applicant. Application exhibits that may have been suppressed during the auction will also be displayed via the Auction Application Search available at https://auctionfiling.fcc.gov/form175/search175/index.htm.8 10. Further Information. For further information on PRS, contact Melissa Dunford, Melissa.Dunford@fcc.gov, (202) 418-0617, or Jonathan McCormack, Jonathan.McCormack@fcc.gov, (202) 418-1065. For general auction questions, contact Linda Sanderson, Linda.Sanderson@fcc.gov, (717) 338-2868. For reverse auction legal questions, contact Erin Griffith, Erin.Griffith@fcc.gov, (202) 418-0660, or Kathryn Hinton, Kathryn.Hinton@fcc.gov, (202) 418-0660. For forward auction legal questions, contact Leslie Barnes, Leslie.Barnes@fcc.gov, (202) 418-0660, or Valerie Barrish, Valerie.Barrish@fcc.gov, (202) 418-0660. Press contact: Charles Meisch, Charles.Meisch@fcc.gov, (202) 418-2943. - FCC - (Continued from previous page) reserve spectrum, and any other bidding-related information that might reveal the identity of the bidders placing bids and taking other bidding-related actions). 8 See Auction 1000 Application Procedures Public Notice, 30 FCC Rcd at 11089, para. 171 n.327.