Telecommunications

Article: The FCC’s Regulatory Mulligan: Exploring the Options in the Wake of a Failed D Block Auction

Abstract

In March 2008, the Federal Communications Commission auctioned licenses to sizeable tracts of radio frequency spectrum that will be vacated due to the analog-to-digital television conversion to occur in June 2009. The Commission conditioned the license to one portion of this spectrum—the “D Block”—on an unprecedented requirement: for the licensee to work hand-in-hand with public-safety agencies in a “public/private partnership” to deploy a nationwide public-safety communications network.