On February 22, 2012, the President signed the Spectrum Act, which, among other things, authorized the Commission to conduct incentive auctions, and directed that the Commission use this innovative tool for an incentive auction of broadcast television spectrum to help meet the Nationâs growing spectrum needs. See Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, Pub. L. No. 112-96, sections 6402, 6403, 125 Stat. 156 (2012) (Spectrum Act). The Commissionâs broadcast incentive auction (BIA) will have three main components: (1) a reverse auction in which broadcast television licensees will submit bids to voluntarily relinquish their spectrum usage rights in exchange for defined shares of proceeds from the forward auction; (2) a repacking of the broadcast television bands; and (3) a forward auction of initial licenses for flexible use of the newly available spectrum. The information collection requirements reported under this new collection are the result of various Commission actions in which the Commission adopted general rules to govern the auctionâincluding various application disclosures and certifications that must be made by broadcast television licensees to establish their eligibility to participate in the reverse auctionâin order to implement the new and novel incentive auction approach for use in the BIA.
Under this information collection, the Commission will collect information that will be used to determine whether an applicant is legally qualified to participate in a reverse incentive auction. To aid in collecting this information, the Commission has created FCC Form 177, which the public will use to participate in reverse incentive auctions, including the Commissionâs upcoming broadcast incentive reverse auction. The Commissionâs auction rules and related requirements are designed to ensure that the competitive bidding process is limited to serious qualified applicants, deter possible abuse of the bidding and licensing process, and enhance the use of competitive bidding to assign Commission licenses and permits in furtherance of the public interest. The information collected on FCC Form 177 will be used by the Commission to determine if an applicant is legally qualified to participate in the reverse auction. Commission staff will review the information collected on FCC Form 177 as part of the pre-auction process, prior to the start of the reverse auction. Staff will determine whether each applicant satisfies the Commissionâs requirements to participate in the reverse auction. Without the information collected on FCC Form 177, the Commission will not be able to determine if an applicant is legally qualified to participate in the reverse auction and has complied with the various applicable regulatory and statutory auction requirements for such participation.
Please see the change request justification for this reason behind this non-substantive change request submission to OMB for review and approval.
On February 22, 2012, the President signed the Spectrum Act, which, among other things, authorized the Commission to conduct incentive auctions, and directed that the Commission use this innovative tool for an incentive auction of broadcast television spectrum to help meet the Nationâs growing spectrum needs.
The information collection requirements reported under this new collection are the result of various Commission actionsâthe latest of which was released on October 15, 2015â to implement this new and novel approach for use in the Commissionâs broadcast incentive auction (BIA).
On June 2, 2014, the Commission released a Report and Order, Expanding the Economic and Innovation Opportunities of Spectrum Through Incentive Auctions, GN Docket No. 12-268, FCC 14-50, 29 FCC Rcd 6567 (2014) (Incentive Auction R&O), in which it adopted general rules to govern the broadcast incentive auction (BIA), including the framework for various application disclosure and certification requirements that must be made by applicants seeking to participate in reverse and forward components of the BIA.
Since the Incentive Auction R&O was released, the Commission has worked to determine final auction procedures, develop the electronic FCC Form 177 reverse auction application, and begin integrating FCC Form 177 into the Commissionâs Auction System. Over a series of subsequent orders and public noticesâmost recently on October 15, 2015âthe Commission modified some of the previously-adopted information collection requirements for applicants to participate in the reverse and forward auctions, and adopted additional information collection requirements for each auction, which required modifications and refinements to the FCC Form 177. The information requested as part of this new collection will be used by the Commission in its review of an applicantâs legal qualifications to participate in the reverse auction.
If the Commission were to wait 120 days to formally notify the public and potential interested parties of its intent to collect this information on FCC Form 177, the Commissionâs ability to begin accepting applications to participate in the reverse component of the BIA would be substantially delayed, and would in turn substantially delay both the start of the reverse auction and the Commissionâs ability to meet its statutory directive to conduct the BIA. Further, due to the emergency nature of this request, the Commission is requesting a waiver of the requirement to publish a 60-day notice in the Federal Register. However, on October 30, 2015, the Commission published a 14-day notice in the Federal Register concerning the new information collection under the emergency processing procedures to give the public an opportunity to comment on this emergency submission. The Commission will conduct all the necessary regular submission requirements under the PRA after approval of this emergency request.
This is a new information collection resulting in a program change increases of 600 respondents, 600 annual responses and 900 total estimated annual burden hours.
$17,484
No
No
No
No
No
Uncollected
Valerie Barrish 202 418-0354
No
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
Form FCC Form 177 Application to Participate in a Reverse Auction
Non-substantive change request for 3060-1213 FCC Form 177 channel sharee clarification 12-1-15.docx
Emergency Justification Letter for WTB Auction (October 2015).pdf
Application to Participate in a Reverse Auction