The Federal Communications Commission’s Auction 105, set to begin June 25, 2020, will potentially award 70 megahertz of Priority Access Licenses (PALs) in the 3.5 GHz band (Citizens Broadband Radio Service).
Auction 105 will assign licenses within Tier 2, the Priority Access tier. The auction will offer seven PALs in each of 3,233 county-based license areas, for a total of 22,631 PALs nationwide. Each PAL will consist of ten-megahertz of unpaired channel. The PALs are ten-year renewable licenses. PAL Licensees can hold up to four PALs within the band in any license area at a given time.
There are a few nuances. Unlike most license auctions, participants in Auction 105 are not purchasing specific spectrum blocks. Instead, PAL licensees will be authorized to use frequency dynamically by the spectrum access system.
Applicants will be able to bid based at the “Cellular Market Area” (CMA) level. Even though the PALs are generally county-based licenses, the FCC proposes to allow bidders to have the option of acquiring spectrum in the 172 CMAs that are classified as Metropolitan Statistical Areas and comprise multiple counties.
Though obviously will be of interest to mobile operators seeking to expand their mid-band spectrum assets supporting 5G, other users, including wireless internet service providers and some enterprises wanting to build private 5G networks are logical bidders.
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