The repacking and reverse auction components of the...

The repacking and reverse auction components of the broadcast spectrum incentive auction are interdependent, said the FCC Incentive Auction Task Force in a public notice Thursday (http://bit.ly/1ktSjyT). If the commission ultimately decides to use a descending clock auction, “it would be necessary to perform numerous feasibility checks prior to each round of bidding,” said the task force. Speed would be important, it said: The analysis “would have to be fast enough to not unduly slow down the bidding process.” The repacking feasibility checking process results can possibly determine a feasible channel assignment for a set of stations or it can determine that no such feasibility assignment exists, it said. It appears that the use of feasibility checking would be compatible with a multiple round auction format “because it can compute answers quickly enough to allow multiple rounds of an auction to take place in a reasonable amount of time,” it said. The task force said it plans to host a webinar next month to discuss approaches for feasibility and the results of initial testing.