FCC chairman cites indoor 911 as a reason for proposed limitation on incentive-auction bidders

Pai said that the order limiting the bidding options for AT&T and Verizon “endangers the success of the broadcast incentive auction” on several levels, noting that winning bids need to total $27.95 billion to meet the funding goals set by Congress.

“The FCC should not limit competitors to compete … The government should not pick winners and losers,” Pai said during the meeting. “The inevitable effect of a policy that restricts participation is less spectrum repurposed for mobile broadband, less funding for national priorities, a higher budget deficit and an increased chance of a failed incentive auction.”

O’Rielly said that the apparent preferential treatment in the order for certain carriers—presumed to be Sprint and T-Mobile, although he did not name them—is misplaced, because they are large global players backed by foreign investors and declined to even bid on the 700 MHz spectrum when it was auctioned.

“What some call correcting a historical accident, I call corporate welfare for certain multinational companies with large market capitalization and access to global capital markets. In some cases, the companies also have strong backing from foreign governments,” O’Rielly said.

In a press conference conducted after the FCC meeting, Wheeler expressed confidence that the incentive auction would meet its financial goals, noting that AT&T indicated in recent communications with the agency that it would bid between $9 billion to $18 billion in the spectrum auction.