1STATEMENT OF
CHAIRMAN TOM WHEELER
Re: Expanding the Economic and Innovation Opportunities of Spectrum Through Incentive Auctions, 
GN Docket No. 12-268.
Today we take a huge step towards turning an innovative approach to making efficient, market-
driven use of our spectrum resources from concept to reality.
The Incentive Auction is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand the benefits of mobile 
wireless coverage and competition to consumers across the Nation, offering more choices of wireless 
providers, lower prices, and higher quality mobile services. The auction will also provide a game-
changing financial opportunity to broadcasters and fully fund the Public Safety Trust Fund (PSTF) for 
FirstNet. Maximizing participation by both broadcasters and wireless providers in the auction will be 
crucial to achieving these goals.
There has been much discussion about how we should define success for the Incentive Auction, 
with most of the talk focused on how many megahertz of spectrum will be repurposed for broadband and 
how much revenue will be raised from the auction.
Obviously, those are important objectives.
But we should not lose sight of the fact that simply creating a marketplace that enables us to buy 
spectrum, re-band it, and then re-sell it, and to do these three things nearly simultaneously, will be a 
tremendous accomplishment in and of itself.
This new approach to the marketplace could revolutionize how spectrum is allocated. The 
Incentive Auction will harness market forces to reallocate valuable low-band (below 1 GHz) spectrum 
from television broadcasters who voluntarily choose to relinquish some or all of their spectrum usage 
rights in exchange for incentive payments, to wireless providers who will bid against each other to buy 
those frequencies to provide mobile broadband services. The low-band spectrum we will auction is 
particularly valuable because it has physical properties that increase the reach of mobile networks over 
long distances at far less cost than spectrum above 1 GHz. It also reaches deep into buildings and urban 
canyons.
What happens in this new marketplace in terms or spectrum repurposed and revenue raised will 
depend on the fundamental economic concept of supply and demand. The rules we adopt today will help 
to establish a marketplace that will be attractive to both buyers and sellers, and will protect and promote 
competition.
Television broadcasters’ participation in the Incentive Auction will be purely voluntary, and 
participation in the Incentive Auction does not mean they have to leave the over-the-air TV business 
entirely. New channel-sharing technologies offer broadcasters a rare opportunity for an infusion of cash to 
expand their business model and explore new innovations, while continuing to provide their traditional 
services to consumers. We will ensure that broadcasters have all of the information they need to make 
informed business decisions about whether and how to participate – including providing information 
about likely opening bids and a projected timeline of actions leading up to the auction.
Consistent with the requirements of the Spectrum Act, we will make available a significant 
amount of unlicensed spectrum (think Wi-Fi) on a nationwide basis, providing economic value to 
businesses and consumers alike.
2We are also taking steps today to address the needs of wireless microphone users, which include 
broadcasters reporting on breaking news, and providers at sports and entertainment events, schools, places 
of worship and business venues. These users provide invaluable services to American consumers, and we 
will continue to develop a framework of solutions to ensure that the spectrum needs of these users will be 
met in the future.
Thank you to the dozens of staff from across the Commission for your unprecedented efforts to bring us 
to this point. I am confident that you will continue to make policy recommendations that will result in a 
successful auction in the middle of next year.