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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 190 / Tuesday, October 5, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
procedures. Additional details regarding making filings to resolve mutual exclusivity prior to the short-form application filing deadline are provided below.
12. Shortly after the short-form application filing deadline, OEA and MB will release a public notice identifying the remaining mutually exclusive applications that will be resolved through competitive bidding in Auction 111. As provided in 47 CFR
73.5002d, these mutually exclusive applicants will then be given one final limited opportunity to resolve mutual exclusivity by the filing of technical amendments, dismissal requests, and requests for approval of universal settlements. Due to the prohibited communications rule, which starts at the short-form application filing deadline, applicants in Auction 111 will not be able to communicate with each other for the purpose of resolving conflicts outside of this limited settlement period. As noted in the Auction 111 Comment Public Notice, under the Commissions established precedent, once two or more short-form applications are accepted for an MX
group, mutual exclusivity exists for the relevant construction permit for auction purposes. Unless the mutual exclusivity is resolved during this limited settlement opportunity, an applicant in Auction 111 cannot obtain a construction permit without placing a bid, even if no other auction applicant for that particular construction permit becomes qualified to bid or in fact places a bid.

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II. Applying To Participate in Auction 111
A. Resolving Mutual Exclusivity Prior to the Short-Form Application Filing Deadline 13. The parties listed in Attachment A
to the Auction 111 Procedures Public Notice may avoid resolving their mutual exclusivity through competitive bidding by instead resolving their mutual exclusivity, prior to the short-form application filing deadline, by means of requests to dismiss the pending LPTV/
translator station applications, unilateral engineering amendments to such applications, legal settlement, or engineering settlement. Any unilateral amendments or amendments pursuant to a settlement agreement made to the pending LPTV/translator station applications must be minor, as defined by the applicable rules, and must not create new mutual exclusivities or application conflicts. Any legal or engineering settlement agreements must be filed with the Commission for
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approval and must include the documentation required by 47 CFR
73.3525. All amendments to pending applications and any requests for approval of settlement agreements, as well as accompanying documentation, must be submitted by filing an amended FCC Form 2100Schedule C in the Media Bureaus Licensing and Management System LMS by 6:00 p.m.
ET on November 9, 2021. OEA and MB
encourage the parties listed in Attachment A to the Auction 111
Procedures Public Notice that are interested in resolving their mutual exclusivity to initiate and complete negotiations, and make any necessary filings, well ahead of the short-form application filing deadline. Applicants, however, should avoid both entering into a settlement agreement for a construction permit prior to the shortform application deadline and filing a short-form application covering that same construction permit. Such a situation could raise issues with regard to the applicants compliance with the prohibited communications rule.
14. As mentioned above, if a unilateral engineering amendment or legal or engineering settlement 1 is submitted for approval in accordance with the procedures described above by 6:00 p.m. ET on November 9, 2021, 2
is fully in accordance with the Act and the Commissions rules, as determined by Commission staff, and 3 completely resolves the mutual exclusivity, then the subject MX group will be removed from Auction 111 and the remaining engineering proposals will be processed under standard licensing procedures. If no such filing is made, and therefore the engineering proposals in an MX group remain mutually exclusive as of the short-form application filing deadline, then each applicant in that MX group must timely file a short-form application in order to avoid dismissal of its pending LPTV/
translator station application.
Specifically, MB will dismiss the mutually exclusive long-form application of any party eligible to participate in Auction 111 that fails to submit a short-form application.
Accordingly, if only one member of an MX group submits a short-form application, and thus all other long-form applications in that MX group are dismissed, that short-form application is not mutually exclusive for auction purposes and the relevant construction permit will not be included in Auction 111. In that case, the engineering proposal of the party that submitted a short-form application will be treated as a singleton and processed under
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standard licensing procedures. OEA and MB note that, if an applicant forgoes filing a short-form application pursuant to an agreement with mutually exclusive applicants, such settlement agreement must be submitted to MB for approval. If a party to a settlement agreement files a short-form application, that settlement agreement may need to be disclosed in its short-form application pursuant to 47 CFR
1.2105a2viii or may be a prohibited joint bidding agreement pursuant to 47
CFR 1.2105a2ix.
B. General Information Regarding ShortForm Applications 15. A short-form application, or FCC
Form 175, provides information that the Commission uses to determine whether the applicant has the legal, technical, and financial qualifications to participate in a Commission auction for licenses or permits. The short-form application is the first part of the Commissions two-phased auction application process. In the first phase, a party seeking to participate in Auction 111 must file a short-form application in which it certifies, under penalty of perjury, that it is qualified to participate. Eligibility to participate in Auction 111 is determined based on an applicants short-form application and certifications and on the applicants upfront payment. After bidding closes, in the second phase of the process, each winning bidder in Auction 111 must file an amendment to its pending long-form application listed in Attachment A to the Auction 111 Procedures Public Notice for each permit it wins in the auction.
16. A party seeking to participate in Auction 111 must file an FCC Form 175
electronically via the Auction Application System prior to 6:00 p.m.
ET on November 9, 2021, following the procedures prescribed in the FCC Form 175 Instructions. If an applicant claims eligibility for a bidding credit, then the information provided in its FCC Form 175 will be used to determine whether the applicant is eligible for the claimed bidding credit. The Auction 111
Procedures Public Notice describes more fully the information disclosures and certifications required in the shortform application. An applicant that files an FCC Form 175 for Auction 111 will be subject to the Commissions rule prohibiting certain communications. An applicant is subject to the prohibition beginning at the deadline for filing short-form applications6:00 p.m. ET
on November 9, 2021.
17. An Auction 111 applicant bears full responsibility for submitting an accurate, complete, and timely short-

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