The upcoming auction by the FCC concerns the band of spectrum amoung 698MHz and 806MHz, and is divided at 746MHz into what is called the lower 700 and upper 700 megahertz bands, encompassing the UHF channels of 52 through 69. Some of that spectrum is already owned from previous auctions, most predominantly by Aloha Partners, who plan to use channels 54 and 59 for their HiWire MobileTV. Qualcomm’s MediaFLO Mobile TV network owns channel 55. The remaining spectrum is divided into 5 blocks and has been mandated by the FCC to fulfill a number of needs and services.

• Block A is 12MHz in the lower 700MHz and is broken into 176 regions that the FCC calls Economic Areas (EA). that is the current channel 52 and 53
• Block B is additionally 12MHz and
  is broken into 734 localities deemed cellular market areas (CMA).
• The C block is 22 MHz and is set aside for commercial aims, broken into 12 regional licenses, and is subject to the FCC’s open access rules.
• Block D is a nationwide commercial license of 10MHz, to be paired with the12MHz that is set aside for public safety and is additionally mandated as open access
• Block E is 6MHz broken into EA’s.

Excluding the Public Safety Block D, any winning bidder can end up with multiple regional or local licenses.

The blocks that are of the most interest, and indeed have generated the most controversy, are the commercial block C, and the Public Safety/Commercial block D.

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Original post by editor