Updated: May 6, 2019
On April 17, 2019, the Commission released a Public Notice providing information regarding the assignment phase of Auction 102. Bidders that won at least one generic block of spectrum in one Partial Economic Area (“PEA”) in the clock phase of the auction are eligible – but not required – to participate in the assignment phase, which allows bidders to place bids for specific frequency blocks.
The first round of the assignment phase bidding will begin on Friday, May 3, 2019. The top-40 PEAs will be assigned first – in decreasing order of weighted pops – one PEA per assignment round. Once the top-40 PEAs have been assigned, the remaining PEAs within each of the six REAGs will be assigned.
Bidders eligible to participate in the assignment phase will be able to log in to the assignment phase bidding system between 10:00 am eastern time (ET) on Friday, April 26, 2019 and 12 noon ET on Monday, April 29, 2019 to download their assignment phase bidding options, view the sequence and timing for the assignment rounds for all PEAs, and identify the assignment rounds in which they are eligible to participate. At 1:00 pm ET on Monday, April 29, 2019, bidders will have access to the bidding system for the assignment phase mock auction. The Commission will hold a mock auction for the assignment phase on Tuesday, April 30, 2019.
The Commission has made available the “Auction 102 Assignment Phase Bidding System User Guide” in the education tab of the Auction 102 page, which describes the system and provides detailed instructions for bidding and viewing results and payment information from the assignment phase.
As a reminder, the anti-collusion rules remain in effect for Auction 101 and 102 participants. Participants must not disclose their status as a winning or non-winning bidder or any other non-public bidding information covered by the prohibition until after the close of Auction 102. This prohibition continues to apply until the deadline for winning bidders in Auction 102 to submit down payments.
Please contact us if you have any questions.