FCC To Double Forward Auction Round Increments

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First, it was a new bidding schedule featuring three hour-long sessions held per day, which went into effect on August 23.

Now, the FCC is taking further steps to speed up its Forward Auction—and spur bidding—by doubling the increment percentage used to set new clock prices for all spectrum in each round.

The shift from adding a fixed 5% increment to the previous round’s posted price to a 10% increment begins with Round 22 on Monday.

Friday’s bidding will begin with $18.58 billion raised toward spectrum thus far.

That means $2.18 billion was raised on Thursday, a high positive sign that the FCC’s “hurry up, please” approach is a success.

Some $610 million was raised in Round 12, repeating the dollar activity seen in Round 11. Meanwhile, roughly $590 million was raised in Round 10.

While more was raised yesterday than through Rounds 2 through 7, there is still a long way to go in the forward auction. Bidding rounds are expected to continue for the next several weeks.

The reverse auction concluded bidding with a clearing cost of $86.42 billion and a clearing target was set at 126 MHz of spectrum.