STATEMENT OF
CHAIRMAN TOM WHEELER
Re: Amendment of Part 15 of the Commission’s Rules for Unlicensed Operations in the Television 
Bands, Repurposed 600 MHz Band, 600 MHz Guard Bands and Duplex Gap, and Channel 37;
Amendment of Part 74 of the Commission’s Rules for Low Power Auxiliary Stations in the 
Repurposed 600 MHz Band and 600 MHz Duplex Gap; Expanding the Economic and Innovation 
Opportunities of Spectrum Through Incentive Auctions; 
Promoting Spectrum Access for Wireless Microphone Operations; Expanding the Economic and 
Innovation Opportunities of Spectrum Through Incentive Auctions;
The FCC’s Incentive Auction is an innovative approach to making efficient, market-driven use of 
our spectrum resources, which could revolutionize how our airwaves are allocated.  We continue to make 
steady progress toward implementing this historic auction.
In May, the Commission adopted an Incentive Auction Report and Order, and, in the four months 
since, the Incentive Auction team and multiple bureaus and offices have done tremendous work to 
advance a number of significant related items, as promised in the Incentive Auction R&O.
The Commission is approving two of those items today.
First, we are proposing to change our Part 15 rules to allow for more robust unlicensed service 
and efficient spectral use.  These changes would extend opportunities for innovative unlicensed use in the 
600 MHz band guard bands, Channel 37, and remaining TV bands, while preventing harmful interference 
to licensed services.
Second, we are exploring how best to address the needs of wireless microphone users over the 
long term, while encouraging development of technologies that will better facilitate sharing with other 
wireless uses in an increasingly crowded spectral environment.  
Both items bring home once again the fact that both licensed and unlicensed spectrum are critical 
inputs to our wireless ecosystem.  They also recognize the importance of sharing our valuable, but 
limited, spectrum resources, even when such sharing may not be entirely comfortable – or easy – for 
incumbent users.
Thank you to the Incentive Auction Task Force, the Office of Engineering and Technology, the 
Wireless Bureau, and all the Commission staff who worked on these items.