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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 39 / Tuesday, March 2, 2021 / Proposed Rules II. Licenses To Be Offered in Auction 108
2. Auction 108 will offer geographic overlay licenses for unassigned spectrum in the 2.5 GHz 24962690
MHz band. With overlay licenses, licensees obtain the rights to geographic area licenses overlaid on top of the existing incumbent licenses, 2.5 GHz Report and Order, 84 FR 57343, October 25, 2019. As with an ordinary flexibleuse license, the overlay licensee may operate anywhere within its geographic area, subject to protecting the licensed areas i.e., circular Geographic Service Areas with a 35-mile radius of incumbent licensees. If an incumbent licensee in a county cancels or terminates its license, then the overlay licensee obtains the rights to operate in the geographic area and on the channel of the cancelled license. An overlay licensee may clear its geographic area by purchasing the incumbent licenses, but it does not have the exclusive right to negotiate with the incumbent licensee for its spectrum rights or to purchase an incumbent license in the geographic area in which it has the overlay rights.
The Commission will offer up to three blocks of spectrum49.5 megahertz, 50.5 megahertz, and 16.5 megahertz blocks, respectivelylicensed on a county basis. Specifically, the first license block will include channels A1
A3, B1B3, C1C3 49.5 megahertz; the second license block will include channels D1D3, the J channels, and channels A4G4 50.5 megahertz; and the third license block will include channels G1G3 and the relevant K
channels 16.5 megahertz of contiguous spectrum and 1 megahertz of the K
channels associated with the G channel group. New overlay licenses in the Educational Broadband Service EBS
portion of the 2.5 GHz band will be issued for 10-year, renewable license terms. A licensee in this band may provide any services permitted under terrestrial fixed or mobile allocations, as set forth in the non-Federal Government column of the Table of Frequency Allocations in 47 CFR 2.106.
3. The specific inventory of overlay licenses available in Auction 108 will be determined by the results of the Rural Tribal Priority Window. During the Rural Tribal Priority Window, federally recognized Tribes were given the opportunity to submit applications to acquire new 2.5 GHz licenses for currently unassigned white space spectrum to provide broadband service on rural Tribal lands before the remaining unassigned spectrum is made generally available through competitive bidding. The Rural Tribal Priority
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Window opened on February 2, 2020, and the original deadline was extended by 30 days to close on September 2, 2020. The Commission received over 400 applications through the Rural Tribal Priority Window and the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau WTB has already granted over 150 of these applications. Based on review of applications received in the Rural Tribal Priority Window, the Office of Economics and Analytics OEA, in conjunction with WTB, will release a public notice announcing the final inventory of 2.5 GHz band overlay licenses to be offered in Auction 108.
This public notice will be released in advance of the deadline for the submission of short-form applications to bid in Auction 108 so that potential applicants can make informed decisions about whether to apply in light of information as to existing incumbents and potential Tribal licensees.
Commission staff aims to process all pending Rural Tribal Priority Window applications prior to announcing the final auction inventory; however, there may be Tribal applications that remain pending at the time the auction inventory is announced. Potential bidders in Auction 108 should continue to investigate all factors that may affect each license on which they seek to bid throughout the auction process, including potential encumbrances that may result from pending Tribal applications.
4. Concurrent with the release of the Auction 108 Comment Public Notice, OEA and WTB have made available a file listing all county and frequency block combinations potentially available for Auction 108, subject to the results of the ongoing review of applications submitted during the Rural Tribal Priority Window. This file is listed as an Attachment A file on the Auction 108
website at www.fcc.gov/auction/108.
The file listing available county and frequency block combinations does not include blocks or counties that are fully encumbered by existing licenses.
5. OEA and WTB will also make available resources to assist applicants in conducting due diligence research regarding potential encumbrances in the band prior to the release of the public notice announcing the final auction inventory. In addition to existing incumbents in the band, the pending Rural Tribal Priority Window applications represent the maximum potential additional encumbrances that may affect the licenses available in the auction. These resources will include a mapping tool to help identify and view existing licenses and Rural Tribal Priority Window applications in the
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Commissions Universal Licensing System ULS database. The mapping tool will be updated to reflect changes due to the grant or dismissal of any pending Tribal applications prior to the auction. Potential applicants are reminded, however, that this tool will not represent complete licensing information; all information should be confirmed in ULS for any specific license or area. More information about Rural Tribal Priority Window applications, including a current mapping tool to help identify the location of pending, accepted for filing, and granted applications, is available at www.fcc.gov/rural-tribal-windowupdates. The licensing information provided on this web page does not represent complete licensing information. All information should be confirmed in ULS for any specific license or area.
6. Notwithstanding Commission resources described in the Auction 108
Comment Public Notice, each potential bidder is solely responsible for investigating and evaluating all technical and marketplace factors that may have a bearing on the potential uses of a license that it may seek in Auction 108, including the availability of unassigned white space in any particular market. In addition to the typical due diligence considerations that the Commission encourages of bidders in all auctions, the Commission calls particular attention in Auction 108
to potential encumbrances due to existing licenses and the Rural Tribal Priority Window issues described above, which may impact the licenses available in Auction 108. Each applicant should closely follow releases from the Commission concerning these issues and consider carefully the technical and economic implications for commercial use of the 2.5 GHz band. The Commission makes no representations or warranties about the use of this spectrum for particular services, or about the information in Commission databases that is furnished by outside parties. Each applicant should be aware that a Commission auction represents an opportunity to become a Commission licensee, subject to certain conditions and regulations. This includes the established authority of the Commission to alter the terms of existing licenses by rulemaking, which is equally applicable to licenses awarded by auction. A
Commission auction does not constitute an endorsement by the Commission of any particular service, technology, or product, nor does a Commission license constitute a guarantee of business success.

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