On Friday, October 26, 2012, the Federal Communications Commission held its first workshop as part of its Learn Everything About Reverse-Auctions Now (“LEARN”) Program — a series that seeks to provide broadcasters guidance on the incentive auction process by which the FCC will reallocate a to-be-determined amount of broadcast television spectrum in the 600 MHz band for mobile broadband uses.  The workshop, following the agenda announced in a previous post, covered issues of interest both to television stations that may be interested in selling their spectrum rights in the auction and those that may be affected when the FCC “repacks” the remaining television stations into a condensed broadcast band.  

After providing an informative series of presentations on the three core components of the incentive auction — the reverse auction, forward auction, and repacking — FCC staff provided an open forum for questions at the workshop.  An archived webcast of the entire workshop as well as PDFs staff used in presentations are available on the FCC’s website.  The FCC also announced that it will continue to post answers to questions submitted to broadcasterlearn@fcc.gov on the LEARN Program website.  

The evening prior to the LEARN workshop, senior FCC officials also participated in a well-attended seminar on incentive auctions, hosted by the Wireless Telecommunications Committee of the Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA).  We understand that the FCC will continue to engage in outreach over the coming weeks and months as it prepares to adopt the principal rules for the auction by summer 2013.