Outline of Advanced Wireless Spectrum auction rules due today: The FCC will draw a picture of how they plan to sell off the last great hunk of spectrum from the digital television transition--the 700 MHz band. At issue is how much of the band will be allotted to public safety purposes, and whether proposals to allow mixed use on those public-safety pieces would be allowed. In the mixed-use scenario, a private operator would build out the network, and first responders would have priority access over commercial users. Outside of local or national emergencies, the band would function like any other commercial network. Ostensibly, the operator would have provisions to shunt commercial traffic to other bands, too.
Update: The meeting was delayed from 10.30 Eastern until the evening while procedural issues were settled. Ultimately, the FCC decided to seek more public opinion on how to proceed.