Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I Auction Rescheduled for December 19, 2013; Notice and Filing Requirements and Other Procedures for Auction 902, 56875-56895 [2013-22483]

Agencies

• FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 179 (Monday, September 16, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56875-56895]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-22483]


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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

[AU Docket No. 13-53; DA 13-1672]


Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I Auction Rescheduled for December 19, 
2013; Notice and Filing Requirements and Other Procedures for Auction 
902

AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In this document, the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and 
the Wireline Competition Bureau (the Bureaus) announce the procedures 
and filing requirements for a reverse auction to award up to $50 
million in one-time Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support and reschedule 
the auction to be held on December 19, 2013. The Bureaus also announce 
the availability of eligible area data in various formats.

DATES: Short-form applications, FCC Form 180, are due prior to 6:00 
p.m. on October 9, 2013.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, 
Auctions and Spectrum Access Division: For Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I 
questions: Patricia Robbins at (202) 418-0660; for auction process 
questions: Lisa Stover at (717) 338-2868. Wireline Competition Bureau, 
Telecommunications Access Policy Division: For general universal 
service questions: Alex Minard at (202) 418-7400. Consumer and 
Governmental Affairs Bureau, Office of Native Affairs and Policy: For 
questions regarding Tribal lands and Tribal governments: Geoffrey 
Blackwell at (202) 418-3629 or Irene Flannery at (202) 418-1307.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a summary of the Auction 902 
Procedures Public Notice released on August 7, 2013. The complete text 
of the Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice, including attachments and 
related Commission documents, is available for public inspection and 
copying from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) Monday through 
Thursday or from 8:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. ET on Fridays in the FCC 
Reference Information Center, 445 12th Street SW., Room CY-A257, 
Washington, DC 20554. The Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice and 
related Commission documents also may be purchased from the 
Commission's duplicating contractor, Best Copy and Printing, Inc. 
(BCPI), 445 12th Street SW., Room CY-B402, Washington, DC 20554, 
telephone 202-488-5300, fax 202-488-5563, or you may contact BCPI at 
its Web site: https://www.BCPIWEB.com. When ordering documents from 
BCPI, please provide the appropriate FCC document number, for example, 
DA 13-1672 for the Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice. The Auction 
902 Procedures Public Notice and related documents also are available 
on the Internet at the Commission's Web site: https://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/902/ or by using the search function for AU Docket No. 13-53 
on the Commission's Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) Web page at 
https://www.fcc.gov/cgb/ecfs/

I. Introduction and Summary

    1. The Bureaus establish the procedures that will apply to the 
reverse auction that will award up to $50 million in one-time Tribal 
Mobility Fund Phase I support. This auction, which is designated as 
Auction 902, is rescheduled to be held on December 19, 2013. The 
Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice establishes the procedures, terms, 
and conditions governing Auction 902, including the pre- and post-
auction application processes, and provides other important information 
for parties that wish to seek Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support.
    2. Auction 902 will award one-time support to carriers that commit 
to provide 3G or better mobile voice and broadband services to Tribal 
lands that lack such services. Support will be allocated to maximize 
the population covered by new mobile services without exceeding the 
budget of $50 million. Winning bidders will be obligated to choose 
whether to deploy 3G service within two years or 4G service within 
three years after the award of support.
    3. Auction 902 will award high-cost universal service support 
through reverse competitive bidding. The USF/ICC Transformation Order, 
76 FR 73830, November 29, 2011 and 76 FR 81562, December 28, 2011, 
established the Mobility Fund as a universal service support mechanism 
dedicated expressly to mobile services and adopted rules for 
distribution of the $50 million budget for Tribal Mobility Fund Phase 
I. The Commission concluded in the USF/ICC Transformation Order that a 
population-based metric is appropriate for the Tribal Mobility Fund 
Phase I auction. In the USF/ICC Transformation Order, the Commission 
delegated authority to the Bureaus to implement Tribal Mobility

[[Page 56876]]

Fund Phase I, including the authority to prepare for and conduct an 
auction and administer program details. On March 29, 2013, the Bureaus 
released the Auction 902 Comment Public Notice, 78 FR 21355, April 10, 
2013, which provided a summary of census blocks potentially eligible 
for Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support, announced the availability on 
the web of the complete list of potentially eligible census blocks, and 
sought comment on whether census blocks should be added to or removed 
from the list of potentially eligible blocks on Tribal lands, on the 
details of auction procedures, and on certain related program 
requirements for Auction 902.
    4. After considering the record encompassing 44 separate filings in 
response to the Auction 902 Comment Public Notice, the Bureaus, among 
other things: (1) Provide an updated summary of census blocks eligible 
for Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support in Auction 902, with the 
complete list available on the web; (2) conclude that the Bureaus will 
conduct Auction 902 as a single-round, sealed bid auction; (3) provide 
for bidding on predefined bidding areas consisting of eligible census 
blocks aggregated by Tribal lands and census tracts, and in some cases 
consisting of individual census blocks in Alaska; (4) establish bidding 
procedures, including stopping procedures to help assure that winning 
bids make cost-effective use of limited available funds and implement 
the Commission's commitment to fiscal responsibility; (5) permit 
winning bidders to demonstrate that they offer supported services at 
rates comparable to those in urban areas by offering one stand-alone 
voice and one data plan in supported areas that match plans in urban 
areas and cost no more than the matching plans; and (6) require that 
each winning bidder provide coverage, consistent with the performance 
requirements of the rules adopted in the USF/ICC Transformation Order, 
to 75 percent or more of the population associated with the eligible 
blocks in each bidding area for which it receives support and describe 
acceptable methods for demonstrating such coverage.
    5. In addition, the Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice reviews 
important Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I program requirements, including 
eligibility requirements for participation in Auction 902 and the 
public interest obligations of winning bidders; describes in detail 
pre-auction procedures and auction application requirements; explains 
requirements and details related to the structure and procedures for 
bidding; and provides an overview of the post-auction procedures, 
requirements, and deadlines, including information on the post-auction 
application and on default payment requirements that will be used to 
enforce carriers' obligations.
    6. The Bureaus in the Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice announce 
a new auction date. The auction was originally scheduled to be held on 
October 24, 2013--the date announced in the Auction 902 Comment Public 
Notice. In order to provide interested parties ample time to analyze 
the updated lists of eligible census blocks released concurrently with 
the Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice and to take any further steps 
required to establish eligibility for participation in Auction 902, the 
Bureaus delay the auction date until December 19, 2013. The Auction 902 
Procedures Public Notice provides additional information regarding 
other dates related to Auction 902, including the short-form 
application deadline.
    7. Throughout the Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice, the term 
``per-pop'' means per population (or per person) within a given 
geographic area. The term ``3G'' refers to third generation wireless 
networks, and ``4G'' refers to fourth generation wireless networks. The 
terms ``3G,'' ``3G or better,'' ``current generation,'' and 
``advanced'' are used interchangeably to refer to mobile wireless 
services that provide voice telephony service on networks that also 
provide services such as Internet access and email. Areas without 3G or 
better services and the population within them are referred to as 
``unserved,'' even though there may be existing service at a lower 
level. The Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice refers to ``awarding'' 
or ``selecting awardees'' by auction for simplicity of expression. Each 
party that becomes a winning bidder in the auction must file an 
application for support. Only after review of the application to 
confirm compliance with all the applicable requirements will a winning 
bidder become authorized to receive support.

II. General Information

A. Overview of Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I

i. Background
    8. In the USF/ICC Transformation Order, the Commission 
comprehensively reformed and modernized the high-cost component of the 
Universal Service Fund (USF) to help ensure the universal availability 
of fixed and mobile communication networks capable of providing voice 
and broadband services, and established a universal service support 
mechanism dedicated exclusively to mobile services--the Mobility Fund.
    9. Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I will provide up to $50 million in 
one-time support to address gaps in mobile services availability by 
supporting the buildout of current- and next-generation mobile networks 
on Tribal lands where these networks are unavailable. The support 
offered under Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I is in addition to any 
ongoing support provided under existing high-cost universal service 
program mechanisms.
    10. The goal for Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I is to extend the 
availability of mobile voice and broadband service on networks that 
provide 3G or better performance and to accelerate the deployment of 4G 
wireless networks in areas where it is cost effective to do so with 
one-time support. To maximize the population covered in eligible areas 
on Tribal lands within the established budget of $50 million, the USF/
ICC Transformation Order established general rules for a reverse 
auction to identify those areas where additional investment can make as 
large a difference as possible in a transparent, simple, speedy, and 
effective way. In this reverse auction, bidders will indicate the 
amount of one-time support they require to deploy service meeting the 
defined performance standard in given eligible areas. Because the 
auction generally will award support based on the lowest per-pop bid 
amount irrespective of geographic area, bidders will compete not only 
against other carriers that may be seeking support in the same areas, 
but also against carriers bidding for support in other areas 
nationwide. Support will be awarded based on the lowest per-pop bid 
amounts submitted, but will not be awarded to more than one provider 
per area. In the USF/ICC Transformation Order, the Commission provided 
for a 25 percent bidding credit for Tribally-owned or -controlled 
providers that participate in Auction 902.
ii. Identification of Census Blocks Eligible for Tribal Mobility Fund 
Support
    11. In the Auction 902 Comment Public Notice, the Bureaus sought 
comment on a list of census blocks identified as potentially eligible 
for Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support. The Bureaus received numerous 
comments addressing census block eligibility.
    12. In the USF/ICC Transformation Order, the Commission decided to 
target Mobility Fund Phase I support,

[[Page 56877]]

including Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support, to census blocks 
without 3G or better service at the geometric center of the block, 
referred to as the centroid (i.e., the internal point latitude/
longitude of a census block polygon), and concluded that Mosaik 
Solutions (Mosaik) data is the best available data source for 
determining the availability of such service. More specifically, the 
Commission concluded that it would consider any census block in the 
2010 Census as unserved, and thus eligible for support, if an analysis 
of the Mosaik data indicated that the centroid is not covered by 
networks using EV-DO, EV-DO Rev A, or UMTS/HSPA or better. In the 
Auction 902 Comment Public Notice, the Bureaus concluded that January 
2013 Mosaik data was the most recently available for the purpose of 
doing an analysis to identify eligible census blocks within Tribal 
lands and described the methodology for identifying potentially 
eligible blocks. ``Tribal lands'' include any federally recognized 
Indian Tribe's reservation, pueblo or colony, including former 
reservations in Oklahoma, Alaska Native regions established pursuant to 
the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and Indian Allotments, as well 
as Hawaiian Home Lands--areas held in trust for native Hawaiians by the 
state of Hawaii, pursuant to the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, as 
amended.
    13. The USF/ICC Transformation Order also concluded that population 
should be the basis for calculating the number of units in each 
eligible census block for purposes of comparing bids and measuring the 
performance of Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support recipients. In 
particular, the Commission concluded, based on concerns raised by 
Tribes, that using a population-based metric would provide greater 
assurance that mobile deployment supported by Tribal Mobility Fund 
Phase I would focus more directly on population centers.
    14. The Bureaus first identified census blocks within Tribal lands 
using 2010 Census data. The Bureaus proposed to identify Tribal lands 
in Alaska using Census data boundaries for the Annette Island Reserve 
and Alaska Native village statistical areas. Alaska Native village 
statistical areas represent the more densely settled portions of Alaska 
Native villages, which are the associations, bands, clans, communities, 
groups, Tribes, or villages recognized pursuant to the Alaska Native 
Claims Settlement Act.
    15. The Bureaus used geographic information system (GIS) software 
to determine whether the Mosaik data showed 3G or better wireless 
coverage at the centroid of each block. The Bureaus used ArcGIS 
software from Esri to determine whether the Mosaik data showed 3G or 
better coverage at each block's centroid. The following technologies 
were considered 3G or better: EV-DO, EV-DO Rev A, UMTS/HSPA, HSPA+, 
WiMAX, and LTE. If the Mosaik data did not show such coverage, the 
Bureaus determined the block to be potentially eligible. Because Tribal 
Mobility Fund Phase I support will be awarded based on the bid amounts 
that will maximize the population covered by new mobile services, the 
Bureaus excluded any of these census blocks without population. The 
Bureaus then excluded any blocks that, during the Auction 901 challenge 
process, they determined to be served or to be ineligible for Mobility 
Fund Phase I support because a provider had made a regulatory 
commitment to provide 3G or better wireless service or had received a 
funding commitment from a federal executive department or agency in 
response to the provider's commitment to provide 3G or better wireless 
service in that area. In addition, the Bureaus identified those census 
blocks that were the subject of winning bids in Auction 901. The 
Bureaus noted that any census block that was the subject of a winning 
bid in Auction 901 and for which support is authorized at the 
conclusion of the Auction 901 long-form application review will not be 
eligible for Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support. If prior to Auction 
902 the Bureaus determine that any of the identified winning bids from 
Auction 901 cannot be authorized, but would otherwise be eligible for 
Auction 902, then such eligible blocks will be included in Auction 902.
    16. In the Auction 902 Comment Public Notice, the Bureaus sought 
comment on whether there were any additional census blocks not 
identified during the Auction 901 challenge process for which, 
notwithstanding the absence of 3G service, any provider had made a 
regulatory commitment to provide 3G or better wireless service, or had 
received a funding commitment from a federal executive department or 
agency in response to the provider's commitment to provide 3G or better 
wireless service. The Bureaus did not receive any comments addressing 
this issue.
    17. In the Auction 902 Comment Public Notice, the Bureaus asked 
commenters identifying census blocks for removal and/or addition to the 
list of potentially eligible census blocks to provide detailed 
information in support of their views. The Bureaus noted that in making 
such determinations for Auction 901, they found demonstrations of 
coverage to be more credible and convincing where they were supported 
by maps, discussions of drive tests, explanation of methodologies for 
determining coverage, and certifications by one or more individuals as 
to the veracity of the material provided. For Auction 901, the Bureaus 
did not make changes to potentially eligible areas based on submissions 
making assertions of coverage without any supporting evidence.
    18. In response to the comments the Bureaus received regarding 
their list of potentially eligible census blocks, they add certain 
eligible census blocks, for purposes of Auction 902, based on the 
Commission's definition of ``Tribal lands.'' Specifically, the Bureaus 
add populated, unserved census blocks in Alaska and in the Navajo 
Eastern Agency. The Bureaus conclude, however, that other areas that 
were ceded to the United States by treaty are not eligible for Tribal 
Mobility Fund Phase I support because they do not fall within the 
applicable definition of ``Tribal lands.'' The Bureaus remove all state 
designated Tribal statistical areas (SDTSAs) from the list of eligible 
census blocks for purposes of Auction 902 because they do not qualify 
as ``Tribal lands'' under the Commission's definition. Separately, the 
Bureaus also remove certain Tribal designated statistical areas 
(TDSAs), as defined by the 2010 Census data, that do not qualify as 
``Tribal lands'' under the Commission's definition. In addition, the 
bureaus add and remove census blocks based on credible and convincing 
demonstrations by commenters regarding service coverage, or the lack 
thereof.
    19. The Bureaus add populated, unserved census blocks in the Alaska 
Native regions to the updated list of bidding areas and the 
corresponding list of eligible census blocks that are available on the 
Auction 902 Web site (https://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/902/). The 
Bureaus identify the eligible Tribal lands in Alaska using the 
boundaries of the twelve geographic Alaska Native regional corporations 
and the Annette Island Reserve, which together cover the entire state 
of Alaska.
    20. The Tribal bidding credit and special ETC provisions are 
available to entities that are owned or controlled by federally-
recognized Alaska Native villages. Specifically, a Tribal entity that 
is owned or controlled by an Alaska Native village may receive these 
benefits in eligible areas that are within the boundaries of the Alaska 
Native village statistical area associated with that village, as well 
as in eligible areas that

[[Page 56878]]

are not within any Alaska Native village statistical area but are 
within the same Alaska Native region as that village. In addition, the 
Bureaus note that the Office of Native Affairs and Policy, in 
coordination with the Bureaus, has provided guidance on the Tribal 
engagement requirements that apply to providers serving Tribal lands, 
including Alaska. In order to facilitate engagement with appropriate 
Tribal government officials in Alaska, the Bureaus' list of eligible 
areas identifies the Alaska Native village statistical areas, which 
indicate where the Alaska Native villages are more densely settled. 
Appropriate Tribal government officials are elected or duly authorized 
government officials of federally recognized American Indian Tribes and 
Alaska Native Villages.
    21. The Bureaus also add populated, unserved census blocks in the 
Navajo Eastern Agency. The Bureaus conclude that all of the populated, 
unserved census blocks in the Navajo Eastern Agency should be included 
in the Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I auction.
    22. The Bureaus decline to include certain areas that Tribes 
previously ceded to the United States by treaty. These areas do not 
fall within the Commission's definition of ``Tribal lands,'' and thus, 
such areas are not eligible for Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support.
    23. The Bureaus remove all SDTSAs from the updated list of eligible 
census blocks because they do not qualify as ``Tribal lands'' under the 
Commission's definition. Separately, the Bureaus also remove certain 
TDSAs, as defined by the 2010 Census data, that do not qualify as 
``Tribal lands'' under the Commission's definition.
    24. The Bureaus also received several challenges to their initial 
determination based on Mosaik data that certain census blocks are 
either served or unserved. The Bureaus find four of these 
demonstrations to be sufficiently credible and convincing to meet the 
requirements of the USF/ICC Transformation Order and incorporate the 
requested changes into the updated list of eligible census blocks. The 
Bureaus conclude that ten commenters that seek additions to the list of 
eligible blocks do not demonstrate actual lack of service, and 
therefore do not provide a basis for the Bureaus to depart from their 
initial determination of potentially eligible census blocks.
    25. The list of census blocks on Tribal lands released concurrently 
with the Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice now includes all of the 
eligible census blocks that were identified by analyzing 2010 Census 
data, January 2013 Mosaik data, and information submitted by third 
parties. The differences between this list and the list provided with 
the Auction 902 Comment Public Notice are as follows: (1) The Bureaus 
have added blocks based on comments received regarding their 
application of the definition of ``Tribal lands'' to Alaska and the 
Navajo Eastern Agency, (2) the Bureaus have removed all SDTSAs and 
certain TDSAs, (3) the Bureaus have added blocks based on the comments 
of one carrier that provided a sufficiently credible and convincing 
demonstration regarding the absence of 3G or better coverage, (4) the 
Bureaus have removed blocks based on the comments of three carriers 
that provided sufficiently credible and convincing demonstrations 
regarding the presence of 3G or better coverage, and (5) the Bureaus 
have removed blocks for which Auction 901 support has been authorized, 
and have added blocks (i.e., removed the asterisks next to blocks) for 
which Auction 901 defaults have been determined. In this list, the 
Bureaus continue to identify census blocks that were covered by winning 
bids in Auction 901 for which the relevant long-form applications 
remain pending. If the Bureaus determine prior to Auction 902 that any 
winning bids from Auction 901 cannot be authorized, and any of those 
bids cover census blocks that would otherwise be eligible for Auction 
902, then such eligible blocks will be available in the auction. 
Similarly, if support is authorized prior to Auction 902 for any of the 
census blocks covered by Auction 901 winning bids, those census blocks 
will be excluded from Auction 902. The Bureaus will announce by public 
notice the removal of any census blocks for which support is authorized 
for Auction 901 winning bids.
    26. The Bureaus are mindful of the Commission's goal of moving 
quickly to expand the availability of advanced mobile services by 
providing one-time support with the limited funds budgeted for this 
purpose. The Bureaus also heed the Commission's warning that more 
extended dialog and pre-auction review of these issues might risk undue 
delay in the award of this support. As was true for the list of 
eligible areas for Auction 901, the Bureaus recognize that no such list 
will be perfect or perfectly up-to-date. Accordingly, the list of 
census blocks on Tribal lands that the Bureaus released concurrently 
with the Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice on August 7, 2013, 
contains their determinations with respect to the areas eligible for 
Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support, with the exception of census 
blocks covered by Auction 901 winning bids, which may be removed from 
this list by public notice at the conclusion of the Auction 901 long-
form application review. The eligible census blocks will, in most 
cases, be aggregated into predefined bidding areas by Tribal lands and 
census tracts. Eligible census blocks in Alaska will be aggregated by 
Alaska Native village statistical areas and census tracts, and where 
there are not Alaska Native village statistical areas, bidding will be 
conducted on a census block basis.
    27. The Bureaus remind those interested in seeking Tribal Mobility 
Fund Phase I support that applicants for Auction 902 are required to 
certify that they will not seek support for any areas in which they 
made a public commitment to deploy 3G or better service by December 31, 
2012.
    28. Attachment A-1 released with the Auction 902 Procedures Public 
Notice provides a summary of the list of eligible census blocks. 
Attachment A-2 released with the Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice 
provides a list of the bidding areas. Due to the large number of 
eligible blocks, the complete list of the individual blocks is provided 
in electronic format only, available as a separate ``Attachment A'' 
file at https://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/902/. In addition to these 
attachments and files, the Bureaus provide an interactive map for this 
information on the Commission Web site. The Bureaus note that the names 
assigned to the bidding areas listed in the Attachment A files have 
been changed since the release of the Auction 902 Comment Public Notice 
in order to conform to the requirements of the FCC Auction System. A 
crosswalk between the names used in the Attachment A files released 
with the Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice and the names used in the 
Auction 902 Comment Public Notice is available on the Commission Web 
site.
iii. Establishing Eligible Units
    29. The Bureaus conclude that they must use population to determine 
units in Auction 902, and that they cannot deviate from their proposal 
to use Census data to determine which census blocks are populated. The 
Bureaus lack delegated authority to revise this rule to use road miles, 
as some commenters suggest, or any other metric other than population.
    30. The Bureaus conclude that the population-based metric for 
comparing bids and assessing coverage for Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I 
requires that the Bureaus must exclude census blocks without population 
from Auction 902 eligibility. The Bureaus recognize that

[[Page 56879]]

winning bidders may need to extend their networks to or through 
unpopulated blocks that are not eligible for Tribal Mobility Fund Phase 
I support in order to meet their Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I 
performance requirements. The Commission's rules with respect to how 
winning bidders can use Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I funds to meet 
their performance requirements do not preclude this. Therefore, the 
Bureaus decline to accept the suggestion that all census blocks should 
be scored with a minimum population of one.
    31. The Bureaus further conclude that they should not deviate from 
their proposal to use Census data as the basis for limiting eligible 
blocks to those where there is a population greater than zero. Given 
the Commission's decision to use population as the bidding comparison 
unit, the Bureaus must use reliable data on population in order to 
conduct the Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I auction.
iv. Public Interest Obligations
    32. Voice and Broadband Service. All Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I 
recipients must satisfy specified public interest obligations in 
exchange for the support they receive, as must all recipients of any 
Connect America Fund support. Specifically, all Connect America Fund 
recipients, including Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I recipients, must 
offer stand-alone voice service to the public. Tribal Mobility Fund 
Phase I recipients must offer voice service with coverage of at least 
75 percent or more of the population within the area for which support 
is provided. If an awardee can prove coverage of at least 75 percent of 
the actual population associated with the eligible census blocks within 
a winning bid area, it may provide and prove coverage in any 
combination across eligible census blocks within that single bidding 
area, including providing coverage to more than 75 percent of the 
population in one eligible census block and less than 75 percent of the 
population in another eligible census block in the same bidding area. 
In the alternative, the Bureaus will also permit proof of coverage by 
relying on a geographic area safe harbor, by which an awardee may show 
that it is providing coverage to at least 75 percent of the geographic 
area in a census block as a proxy for providing service to at least 75 
percent of the population within that census block. If a winning bidder 
relies on the geographic area safe harbor for a particular winning bid 
area, it must provide and prove coverage to at least 75 percent of the 
geographic area of each eligible census block within that winning bid 
area. Furthermore, receipt of Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support is 
conditioned upon the recipient providing service over a network that 
achieves particular data rates under particular conditions, which the 
Commission, for this purpose, refers to as 3G networks or better. The 
Commission expects that ETCs that offer standalone broadband service in 
any portion of their service territory will also offer such service in 
all areas that receive Connect America Fund support.
    33. Data Rates. For purposes of Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I, the 
Commission refers to a network as a 3G network if it achieves outdoor 
minimum data transmission rates of 50 kilobits per second (kbps) uplink 
and 200 kbps downlink at vehicle speeds appropriate for the areas 
covered. Also for purposes of Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I, the 
Commission refers to a network as a 4G network if it achieves outdoor 
minimum data transmissions rates of 200 kbps uplink and 768 kbps 
downlink at vehicle speeds appropriate for the area covered. With 
respect to both 3G and 4G networks, transmission latency must be low 
enough to enable the use of real-time applications, such as Voice over 
Internet Protocol (VoIP).
    34. Performance Deadlines. Winning bidders in Auction 902 will 
commit to provide service over either a 3G or a 4G network, as those 
terms are used with respect to Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I, in their 
post-auction long-form applications for support. Those parties 
committing to provide service over a 3G network must do so for at least 
75 percent or more of the population within the winning bidding area 
within two years of being authorized to receive support. Winning 
bidders committing to provide service over a 4G network must do so for 
at least 75 percent or more of the population within the winning 
bidding area within three years of being authorized to receive support. 
To the extent that a recipient covers population in excess of the 
minimum, support will be available for up to 100 percent of the 
eligible population for which the recipient demonstrates coverage 
within the timeframe required for the technology deployed.
    35. Reasonably Comparable Rates. Recipients of Tribal Mobility Fund 
Phase I support must certify annually that they offer service in 
supported areas at rates that are within a reasonable range of rates 
for similar service plans offered by mobile wireless providers in urban 
areas. This requirement extends for a period ending five years after 
the date of award of support.
    36. Collocation. In exchange for the support provided, Tribal 
Mobility Fund Phase I support recipients shall allow for reasonable 
collocation by other providers of services that would meet the voice 
and data requirements of Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I on newly-
constructed towers that the recipient owns or manages in the area for 
which it receives support. Consistent with this requirement, a 
recipient may not enter into facilities access arrangements regarding 
relevant facilities that restrict any party to the arrangement from 
allowing others to collocate on the facilities.
    37. Voice and Data Roaming. Recipients of Tribal Mobility Fund 
Phase I support must provide voice and data roaming on networks built 
with the support, consistent with the requirements of 47 CFR 20.12, as 
those rules were in effect on the date the Commission adopted the USF/
ICC Transformation Order. This condition of support is independent of 
subsequent changes to the Commission's rules on voice and data roaming. 
In other words, even if 47 CFR 20.12 is amended, support recipients 
must continue to meet the requirements of 47 CFR 20.12 as that rule 
existed as of October 27, 2011. To the extent the Commission adopts any 
new rules regarding voice and data roaming that are generally 
applicable, recipients of Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support may be 
subject to those new rules as well. As these requirements, and all of 
the other public interest obligations, are a condition of Tribal 
Mobility Fund Phase I support, violations may result in the withholding 
or clawing back, i.e., return, of universal service support in addition 
to any other applicable sanctions.
v. Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I Eligibility Requirements
    38. In order to participate in Auction 902 and receive Tribal 
Mobility Fund Phase I support, an applicant must be designated as an 
eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) for the areas on which it 
wishes to bid or, if it is a Tribally-owned or -controlled entity, have 
a pending application for ETC designation for the relevant areas within 
the boundaries of the Tribal land associated with the Tribe that owns 
or controls the entity. A Tribally-owned or -controlled entity must 
have its application for ETC designation pending at the relevant short-
form application deadline. The ETC designation must cover a sufficient 
portion of the bidding area to allow the applicant to satisfy the 
applicable performance requirements. A Tribal entity that wins support 
in Auction 902 while its ETC petition is pending must receive an ETC 
designation prior to support being

[[Page 56880]]

authorized and disbursed. Allowing a Tribally-owned or -controlled 
entity to participate at auction while its ETC petition is pending in 
no way prejudges the ultimate decision on its pending ETC petition. 
Because of the lead time necessary to receive designation as an ETC, 
prospective applicants that need to do so are strongly encouraged to 
initiate the process as soon as possible in order to increase the 
likelihood that they will be eligible to participate in Auction 902. 
Carriers subject to the jurisdiction of a state in which they seek 
designation should petition that state's commission for designation as 
an ETC to provide voice service. Carriers not subject to the 
jurisdiction of the relevant state commission should petition the 
Commission for designation as an ETC. The Commission has established a 
framework for determining whether a state commission or the Commission 
itself has jurisdiction to designate ETCs on Tribal lands. First, a 
carrier serving Tribal lands must petition the Commission for a 
determination on whether the state has jurisdiction over the carrier. 
The Commission then determines whether the carrier is subject to the 
jurisdiction of a state commission or whether it is subject to a Tribal 
authority given the Tribal interests involved. In the latter case, the 
Commission has jurisdiction to designate the carrier as an ETC and will 
proceed to consider the merits of the carrier's petition for 
designation. The Bureaus have provided guidance on existing 
requirements for filing an ETC application with the Commission in a 
separate public notice: Eligible Telecommunications Carrier Designation 
for Participation in Mobility Fund Phase I, 77 FR 14012, March 8, 2012. 
Petitions for designation as an ETC should be filed in WC Docket No. 
09-197 and WT Docket No. 10-208, and should not be filed in the docket 
for Auction 902, AU Docket No. 13-53. The Bureaus adopted a protective 
order limiting access to proprietary and confidential information that 
may be filed in WC Docket No. 09-197 and WT Docket No. 10-208 in 
connection with petitions filed for designation as an ETC for purposes 
of participation in any Mobility Fund auction.
    39. An applicant for Auction 902 must also demonstrate that it has 
access to the spectrum necessary to satisfy the applicable performance 
requirements. The requirement that parties have access to spectrum 
applies equally to all parties, including Tribal entities. In addition, 
an applicant must certify that it is financially and technically 
capable of providing 3G or better service.
vi. Annual Reporting and Record Retention Requirements
    40. Winning bidders that are authorized to receive Tribal Mobility 
Fund Phase I support are required to submit to the Commission an annual 
report each year for the five years after being so authorized. In 
addition, authorized winning bidders are required to submit certain 
reports before receiving disbursements of support. Tribal Mobility Fund 
Phase I support will be available for disbursement to authorized 
winning bidders in three stages, with the first disbursement made when 
the winning bidder is authorized to receive support. A winning bidder 
authorized to receive Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support and all of 
its agents are required to retain any documentation prepared for, or in 
connection with, the award of Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support for 
a period of not less than ten years after the date on which the winning 
bidder receives its final disbursement of Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I 
support.

B. Auction Specifics

i. Auction Start Date
    41. Bidding in Auction 902 will be held on Thursday, December 19, 
2013. Unless otherwise announced, bidding for all eligible census 
blocks will be offered at the same time.
    42. The start and finish time of bidding will be announced by 
public notice approximately one week before the start of the auction.
ii. Bidding Methodology
    43. The bidding methodology for Auction 902 will be a single-round 
reverse auction format. The Commission will conduct this auction over 
the Internet using the FCC Auction System. Qualified bidders must bid 
electronically via the Internet. Telephonic bidding will not be 
available for Auction 902 because it will not be feasible given the 
number of eligible geographic areas and the manner in which bids will 
be uploaded.
iii. Pre-Auction Dates and Deadlines
    44. The following dates and deadlines apply to Auction 902: (1) An 
auction tutorial will be available (via Internet) by September 25, 
2013; (2) the short-form application (FCC Form 180) filing window will 
open on September 25, 2013, at 12:00 noon ET; (3) the short-form 
application (FCC Form 180) filing window will close on October 9, 2013, 
at 6:00 p.m. ET; (4) a mock auction will be held on December 16, 2013; 
and (5) Auction 902 will be held on December 19, 2013.
iv. Requirements for Participation
    45. Those wishing to participate in this auction must: (1) Submit a 
short-form application (FCC Form 180) electronically prior to 6:00 p.m. 
ET, October 9, 2013, following the electronic filing procedures 
described in Attachment D of the Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice; 
and (2) comply with all provisions outlined in the Auction 902 
Procedures Public Notice and applicable Commission rules.

C. Rules and Disclaimers

i. Relevant Authority
    46. Prospective applicants in Auction 902 must familiarize 
themselves with the Commission's general universal service rules, 
contained in 47 CFR Part 54, and the Mobility Fund specifically, 47 CFR 
54.1001-54.1010. They should also familiarize themselves with the 
Commission's decision in the USF/ICC Transformation Order to implement 
the Mobility Fund Phase I, including Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I.
    47. Prospective bidders in Auction 902 must be familiar with the 
specific competitive bidding rules for universal service support 
contained in 47 CFR 1.21000-1.21004, as well as the procedures, terms, 
and conditions contained in the Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice 
and all other public notices related to Auction 902 (AU Docket No. 13-
53). Additionally, prospective Auction 902 bidders will find it helpful 
to familiarize themselves with the processes established for the 
Commission's first auction of Mobility Fund Phase I support (Auction 
901) and with the Commission's general competitive bidding rules, 
including recent amendments and clarifications; and Commission 
decisions in proceedings regarding competitive bidding procedures, 
application requirements, and obligations of Commission licensees. 
Information on Auction 901, including copies of all Auction 901 public 
notices and auction results, may be found on the Commission's Auction 
901 Web page at https://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/901.
    48. The terms contained in the Commission's rules, relevant orders, 
and public notices are not negotiable. The Commission may amend or 
supplement the information contained in its public notices at any time, 
and will issue public notices to convey any new or supplemental 
information to applicants. It is the responsibility of all applicants 
to remain current with all Commission rules and with all public notices 
pertaining to this auction.

[[Page 56881]]

ii. Prohibited Communications and Compliance With Antitrust Laws
    49. To ensure the competitiveness of the auction process, 47 CFR 
1.21002 prohibits an applicant in a Mobility Fund auction from 
cooperating or collaborating with any other applicant with respect to 
its own, or one another's, or any other competing applicant's bids or 
bidding strategies, and from communicating with any other applicant in 
any manner the substance of its own, or one another's, or any other 
competing applicant's bids or bidding strategies, until after the post-
auction deadline for winning bidders to submit applications for 
support, unless such applicants are members of a joint bidding 
arrangement identified on the short-form application(s) pursuant to 47 
CFR 1.21001(b)(3) and (b)(4).
    50. 47 CFR 1.21002 is based on a similar rule used in competitive 
bidding for spectrum licenses, 47 CFR 1.2105(c). Potential bidders 
should familiarize themselves with 47 CFR 1.2105(c) and 1.21002, and 
with the judicial, Commission, and Wireless Bureau decisions addressing 
application of the rule prohibiting certain communications listed in 
Attachment E of the Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice. Because 47 
CFR 1.21002 was adopted for Mobility Fund competitive bidding 
relatively recently, the Commission's prior experience in this area is 
in the context of 47 CFR 1.2105(c). Applicants should review 
information regarding the interpretation of 47 CFR 1.2105(c) to gain 
insight into the Commission's views on prohibited communications during 
competitive bidding for Mobility Fund support.
a. Entities Subject to Section 1.21002, the Rule Prohibiting Certain 
Communications
    51. 47 CFR 1.21002's prohibition of certain communications will 
apply to any applicant that submits a short-form application to 
participate in Auction 902. Thus, unless they have identified each 
other on their short-form applications as parties with whom they have 
entered into agreements under 47 CFR 1.21001(b)(3), applicants in 
Auction 902 must affirmatively avoid all communications with or 
disclosures to each other that affect or have the potential to affect 
bids or bidding strategy. In some instances, this prohibition extends 
to communications regarding the post-auction market structure. This 
prohibition applies to all applicants regardless of whether such 
applicants become qualified bidders or actually bid.
    52. All bidders will compete for support with all other bidders in 
Auction 902, regardless of the geographic areas they seek to serve with 
Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support. Therefore, applicants will be 
prohibited from making certain communications with all other applicants 
in Auction 902 regardless of the eligible areas for which they seek 
support, unless the parties disclose agreements reached between them on 
their short-form applications.
    53. For purposes of the prohibition of certain communications, 47 
CFR 1.21002 defines ``applicant'' broadly to include the applicant, 
each party capable of controlling the applicant, including all officers 
and directors, and each party that may be controlled by the applicant 
or by a party capable of controlling the applicant.
    54. Individuals and entities subject to 47 CFR 1.21002 should take 
special care in circumstances where their officers, directors, and 
employees may receive information directly or indirectly relating to 
any competing applicant's bids or bidding strategies. For example, the 
Wireless Bureau has found that when an individual serves as an officer 
for two or more applicants, the bids and bidding strategies of one 
applicant are conveyed to the other applicant, and, absent a disclosed 
bidding agreement, an apparent violation of the rule prohibiting 
certain communications occurs. The Wireless Bureau has not addressed a 
situation where non-principals (i.e., those who are not officers or 
directors, and thus not considered to be the applicant) receive 
information regarding a competing applicant's bids or bidding 
strategies and whether that information should be presumed to be 
communicated to the applicant.
    55. Moreover, the Bureaus encourage Auction 902 applicants not to 
use the same individual authorized bidder as is used by another 
applicant. A violation of 47 CFR 1.21002 could occur if an individual 
acts as the authorized bidder for two or more competing applicants, and 
conveys information concerning the substance of bids or bidding 
strategies between such applicants. Also, if the authorized bidders are 
different individuals employed by the same organization (e.g., a law 
firm, engineering firm, or consulting firm), a violation similarly 
could occur. In such a case, at a minimum, applicants should certify on 
their applications that precautionary steps have been taken to prevent 
communication between authorized bidders, and that the applicant and 
its bidders will comply with 47 CFR 1.21002.
b. Prohibition Applies Until Long-Form Application Deadline
    56. The 47 CFR 1.21002 prohibition of certain communications begins 
at the short-form application filing deadline and ends at the long-form 
application deadline after the auction closes, which will be announced 
in a future public notice.
c. Prohibited Communications
    57. Applicants must not communicate directly or indirectly about 
bids or bidding strategy to other applicants in this auction. 47 CFR 
1.21002 prohibits not only communication about an applicant's own bids 
or bidding strategy, but also communications about another applicant's 
bids or bidding strategy. While 47 CFR 1.21002 does not prohibit non-
auction-related business negotiations among auction applicants, each 
applicant must remain vigilant so as not to directly or indirectly 
communicate information that affects, or could affect, bids or bidding 
strategies.
    58. Applicants are cautioned that the Commission remains vigilant 
about prohibited communications taking place outside of the auction 
itself. For example, the Commission has warned that prohibited 
``communications concerning bids and bidding strategies may include 
communications regarding capital calls or requests for additional funds 
in support of bids or bidding strategies to the extent such 
communications convey information concerning the bids and bidding 
strategies directly or indirectly.'' Moreover, the Commission has found 
a violation of the rule against prohibited communications where an 
applicant used the Commission's bidding system to disclose ``its 
bidding strategy in a manner that explicitly invited other auction 
participants to cooperate and collaborate in specific markets,'' and 
has placed auction participants on notice that the use of its bidding 
system ``to disclose market information to competitors will not be 
tolerated and will subject bidders to sanctions.'' Applicants also 
should use caution in their dealings with other parties, such as 
members of the press, financial analysts, or others who might become 
conduits for the communication of prohibited bidding information. For 
example, an applicant's statement to the press that it intends to stop 
bidding in the auction could give rise to a finding of a 47 CFR 1.21002 
violation. Similarly, an applicant's public statement of intent not to 
participate in Auction 902 bidding could also violate the rule. 
Applicants are hereby placed on notice

[[Page 56882]]

that public disclosure of information relating to bids, bidding 
strategies, or post-auction market structures may violate 47 CFR 
1.21002.
d. Disclosure of Bidding Agreements and Arrangements
    59. The Commission's rules do not prohibit applicants from entering 
into otherwise lawful bidding agreements before filing their short-form 
applications, as long as they disclose the existence of the agreements 
in their short-form applications. Applicants must identify in their 
short-form applications all parties with whom they have entered into 
any agreements, arrangements, or understandings of any kind relating to 
the Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support they seek, including any 
agreements relating to post-auction market structure.
    60. If parties agree in principle on all material terms prior to 
the short-form application filing deadline, each party to the agreement 
must identify the other party or parties to the agreement on its short-
form application under 47 CFR 1.21001(b)(3), even if the agreement has 
not been reduced to writing. If the parties have not agreed in 
principle by the short-form filing deadline, they should not include 
the names of parties to discussions on their applications, and they may 
not continue negotiation, discussion or communication with any other 
applicants after the short-form application filing deadline.
    61. 47 CFR 1.21002 does not prohibit non-auction-related business 
negotiations among auction applicants. However, certain discussions or 
exchanges could touch upon impermissible subject matters because they 
may convey pricing information and bidding strategies. Such subject 
areas include, but are not limited to, issues such as management, 
sales, local marketing agreements, and other transactional agreements.
e. Section 1.21001(b)(4)-(5) Applicant Certifications
    62. By electronically submitting a short-form application, each 
applicant in Auction 902 certifies its compliance with 47 CFR 
1.21001(b)(3) and 1.21002. In particular, an applicant must certify 
under penalty of perjury that the application discloses all real 
parties in interest to any agreements involving the applicant's 
participation in the competitive bidding for Tribal Mobility Fund 
support. Also, the applicant must certify that it and all applicable 
parties have complied with and will continue to comply with 47 CFR 
1.21002.
    63. The Bureaus caution, however, that merely filing a certifying 
statement as part of an application will not outweigh specific evidence 
that a prohibited communication has occurred, nor will it preclude the 
initiation of an investigation when warranted. The Commission has 
stated that it ``intend[s] to scrutinize carefully any instances in 
which bidding patterns suggest that collusion may be occurring.'' Any 
applicant found to have violated 47 CFR 1.21001(b)(4) or (b)(5) may be 
subject to sanctions.
f. Duty To Report Prohibited Communications
    64. 47 CFR 1.21002(c) provides that any applicant that makes or 
receives a communication that appears to violate 47 CFR 1.21002 must 
report such communication in writing to the Commission immediately, and 
in no case later than five business days after the communication 
occurs. An applicant's obligation to make such a report continues until 
the report has been made. This reporting requirement applies even if 
the communication of bids or bidding strategies does not result in a 
bidding arrangement, agreement, or understanding.
    65. In addition, 47 CFR 1.65 requires an applicant to maintain the 
accuracy and completeness of information furnished in its pending 
application and to notify the Commission of any substantial change that 
may be of decisional significance to that application. Thus, 47 CFR 
1.65 requires an Auction 902 applicant to notify the Commission of any 
substantial change to the information or certifications included in its 
pending short-form application. An applicant is therefore required by 
47 CFR 1.65 to report to the Commission any communication the applicant 
has made to or received from another applicant after the short-form 
application filing deadline that affects or has the potential to affect 
bids or bidding strategy, unless such communication is made to or 
received from a party to an agreement identified under 47 CFR 
1.21001(b)(3) and (b)(4).
    66. 47 CFR 1.65(a) and 1.21002 require each applicant in 
competitive bidding proceedings to furnish additional or corrected 
information within five days of a significant occurrence, or to amend 
its short-form application no more than five days after the applicant 
becomes aware of the need for amendment. These rules are intended to 
facilitate the auction process by making the information available 
promptly to all participants and to enable the Bureaus to act 
expeditiously on those changes when such action is necessary.
g. Procedure for Reporting Prohibited Communications
    67. A party reporting any prohibited communication pursuant to 47 
CFR 1.65, 1.21001(b), or 1.21002(c) must take care to ensure that any 
report of the prohibited communication does not itself give rise to a 
violation of 47 CFR 1.21002. For example, a party's report of a 
prohibited communication could violate the rule by communicating 
prohibited information to other applicants through the use of 
Commission filing procedures that would allow such materials to be made 
available for public inspection.
    68. Parties must file only a single report concerning a prohibited 
communication and must file that report with Commission personnel 
expressly charged with administering the Commission's auctions. This 
process differs from filing procedures used in connection with other 
Commission rules and processes which may call for submission of filings 
to the Commission's Office of the Secretary or via the Commission's 
Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS). Filing through the Office of 
the Secretary or ECFS could allow the report to become publicly 
available and might result in the communication of prohibited 
information to other auction applicants. This rule is designed to 
minimize the risk of inadvertent dissemination of information in such 
reports. Any reports required by 47 CFR 1.21002(c) must be filed 
consistent with the instructions set forth in the Auction 902 
Procedures Public Notice. For Auction 902, such reports must be filed 
with the Chief of the Auctions and Spectrum Access Division, Wireless 
Telecommunications Bureau, by the most expeditious means available. Any 
such report should be submitted by email to the following email 
address: auction902@fcc.gov. If you choose instead to submit a report 
in hard copy, any such report must be delivered only to Margaret W. 
Wiener, Chief, Auctions and Spectrum Access Division, Wireless 
Telecommunications Bureau, Federal Communications Commission, 445 12th 
Street SW., Room 6423, Washington, DC 20554.
    69. A party seeking to report such a prohibited communication 
should consider submitting its report with a request that the report or 
portions of the submission be withheld from public inspection by 
following the procedures specified in 47 CFR 0.459. Filers requesting 
confidential treatment of documents must be sure that the cover page of 
the filing prominently displays that the documents seek confidential 
treatment. For example, a filing might

[[Page 56883]]

include a cover page stamped with ``Request for Confidential Treatment 
Attached'' or ``Not for Public Inspection.'' Any such request must 
cover all of the material to which the request applies. The Bureaus 
encourage such parties to coordinate with the Auctions and Spectrum 
Access Division staff about the procedures for submitting such reports.
h. Winning Bidders May Need To Disclose Terms of Agreements
    70. Each applicant that is a winning bidder may be required to 
disclose in its long-form application the specific terms, conditions, 
and parties involved in any agreement it has entered into. This may 
apply to any bidding consortium, joint venture, partnership, or 
agreement, understanding, or other arrangement entered into relating to 
the competitive bidding process, including any agreement relating to 
the post-auction market structure. Failure to comply with the 
Commission's rules can result in enforcement action.
i. Additional Information Concerning Rule Prohibiting Certain 
Communications
    71. A summary listing of documents issued by the Commission and the 
Wireless Bureau addressing the application of the rule prohibiting 
certain communications may be found in Attachment E of the Auction 902 
Procedures Public Notice. These documents are available on the 
Commission's auction Web page at https://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/prohibited_communications.
j. Antitrust Laws
    72. The Bureaus also remind applicants that, regardless of 
compliance with the Commission's rules, they remain subject to the 
antitrust laws, which are designed to prevent anticompetitive behavior 
in the marketplace. Compliance with the disclosure requirements of 47 
CFR 1.21002 will not insulate a party from enforcement of the antitrust 
laws. For instance, a violation of the antitrust laws could arise out 
of actions taking place well before any party submitted a short-form 
application. The Commission has cited a number of examples of 
potentially anticompetitive actions that would be prohibited under 
antitrust laws: For example, actual or potential competitors may not 
agree to divide territories in order to minimize competition, 
regardless of whether they split a market in which they both do 
business, or whether they merely reserve one market for one and another 
market for the other. Similarly, the Wireless Bureau previously 
reminded potential applicants and others that ``[e]ven where the 
applicant discloses parties with whom it has reached an agreement on 
the short-form application, thereby permitting discussions with those 
parties, the applicant is nevertheless subject to existing antitrust 
laws.''
    73. To the extent the Commission becomes aware of specific 
allegations that suggest that violations of the federal antitrust laws 
may have occurred, the Commission may refer such allegations to the 
United States Department of Justice for investigation. If an applicant 
is found to have violated the antitrust laws or the Commission's rules 
in connection with its participation in the competitive bidding 
process, it may be subject to a forfeiture and may be prohibited from 
participating in future auctions, among other sanctions.
iii. Due Diligence
    74. The Bureaus remind each potential bidder that it has sole 
responsibility for investigating and evaluating all technical and 
marketplace factors that may have a bearing on the level of Tribal 
Mobility Fund Phase I support it submits as a bid in Auction 902. Each 
bidder is responsible for assuring that, if it wins the support, it 
will be able to build and operate facilities in accordance with the 
Mobility Fund obligations and the Commission's rules generally.
    75. Applicants should be aware that Auction 902 represents an 
opportunity to apply for Mobility Fund support, subject to certain 
conditions and regulations. Auction 902 does not constitute an 
endorsement by the FCC of any particular service, technology, or 
product, nor does Mobility Fund support constitute a guarantee of 
business success.
    76. An applicant should perform its due diligence research and 
analysis before proceeding, as it would with any new business venture. 
In particular, the Bureaus strongly encourage each potential bidder to 
review all underlying Commission orders, including the USF/ICC 
Transformation Order. Each potential bidder should perform technical 
analyses or refresh its previous analyses to assure itself that, should 
it become a winning bidder for Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support, it 
will be able to build and operate facilities that will fully comply 
with all applicable technical and legal requirements. The Bureaus 
strongly encourage each applicant to inspect any prospective 
transmitter sites located in, or near, the service area for which it 
plans to construct transmitters with Mobility Fund support, to confirm 
the availability of such sites, and to familiarize itself with the 
Commission's rules regarding environmental compliance.
    77. The Bureaus strongly encourage each applicant to conduct its 
own research prior to Auction 902 in order to determine the existence 
of pending administrative or judicial proceedings that might affect its 
decision to participate in the auction. The due diligence 
considerations mentioned in the Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice do 
not comprise an exhaustive list of steps that should be undertaken 
prior to participating in this auction. As always, the burden is on the 
potential bidder to determine how much research to undertake, depending 
upon specific facts and circumstances related to its interests.
    78. The Bureaus also remind each applicant that pending and future 
judicial proceedings, as well as certain pending and future proceedings 
before the Commission--including applications for modification, 
petitions for rulemaking, requests for special temporary authority, 
waiver requests, petitions to deny, petitions for reconsideration, 
informal objections, and applications for review--may relate to 
particular licensees or applicants for support in Auction 902. Each 
prospective applicant is responsible for assessing the likelihood of 
the various possible outcomes and for considering the potential impact 
on Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support available through this auction.
    79. Each applicant is solely responsible for identifying associated 
risks and for investigating and evaluating the degree to which such 
matters may affect its ability to bid on or otherwise receive Tribal 
Mobility Fund Phase I support. Each potential bidder is responsible for 
undertaking research to ensure that any support won in this auction 
will be suitable for its business plans and needs. Each potential 
bidder must undertake its own assessment of the relevance and 
importance of information gathered as part of its due diligence 
efforts.
    80. The Commission makes no representations or guarantees regarding 
the accuracy or completeness of information in its databases or any 
third party databases, including, for example, court docketing systems. 
To the extent the Commission's databases may not include all 
information deemed necessary or desirable by an applicant, it must 
obtain or verify such information from independent sources or assume 
the risk of any incompleteness or inaccuracy in said

[[Page 56884]]

databases. Furthermore, the Commission makes no representations or 
guarantees regarding the accuracy or completeness of information that 
has been provided by incumbent licensees and incorporated into its 
databases.
iv. Use of FCC Auction System
    81. Bidders will be able to participate in Auction 902 over the 
Internet using the FCC Auction System. The Commission makes no warranty 
whatsoever with respect to the FCC Auction System. In no event shall 
the Commission, or any of its officers, employees, or agents, be liable 
for any damages whatsoever (including, but not limited to, loss of 
business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, 
or any other loss) arising out of or relating to the existence, 
furnishing, functioning, or use of the FCC Auction System that is 
accessible to qualified bidders in connection with this auction. 
Moreover, no obligation or liability will arise out of the Commission's 
technical, programming, or other advice or service provided in 
connection with the FCC Auction System.
v. Environmental Review Requirements
    82. Recipients of Mobility Fund support, like all licensees, must 
comply with the Commission's rules regarding implementation of the 
National Environmental Policy Act and other federal environmental 
statutes. The construction of a wireless antenna facility is a federal 
action, and any entity constructing a wireless antenna facility must 
comply with the Commission's environmental rules for each such 
facility. The Commission's environmental rules require, among other 
things, that the entity constructing the facility consult with expert 
agencies having environmental responsibilities, including the U.S. Fish 
and Wildlife Service, the State Historic Preservation Office, the Army 
Corps of Engineers, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency 
(through the local authority with jurisdiction over floodplains). If 
the facility will not be located on Tribal lands as defined in the 
Nationwide Programmatic Agreement Regarding the Section 106 National 
Historic Preservation Act Review Process (NPA), the entity constructing 
the facility must follow the provisions of the NPA in assessing the 
effect of facilities construction on historic properties. However, if 
the facility will be located on Tribal lands as defined in the NPA, the 
entity must follow the procedures set forth in the rules of the 
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. The NPA defines Tribal lands 
as ``all lands within the exterior boundaries of any Indian reservation 
and all dependent Indian communities,'' and does not include Native 
Hawaiian Home Lands. The entity must prepare environmental assessments 
for facilities that may have a significant impact in or on wilderness 
areas, wildlife preserves, threatened or endangered species or 
designated critical habitats, historical or archaeological sites, 
Indian religious sites, floodplains, and surface features. The entity 
also must prepare environmental assessments for facilities that include 
high intensity white lights in residential neighborhoods or excessive 
radio frequency emission, or that are over 450 feet in height. 
Facilities that require antenna registration will also be required to 
complete an environmental notification process.

III. Short-Form Application Requirements

A. General Information Regarding Short-Form Applications

    83. An application to participate in Auction 902, referred to as a 
short-form application or FCC Form 180, provides information used to 
determine whether the applicant is legally, technically, and 
financially qualified to participate in Commission auctions for 
universal service funding support. The short-form application is the 
first part of the Commission's two-phased auction application process. 
In the first phase, each party desiring to participate in the auction 
must file a streamlined, short-form application in which it certifies 
under penalty of perjury as to its qualifications. Each applicant must 
take seriously its duties and responsibilities and carefully determine 
before filing an application that it has the legal, technical, and 
financial resources to participate in the auction and to meet the 
public interest obligations associated with Tribal Mobility Fund Phase 
I support. Eligibility to participate in bidding is based on the 
applicant's short-form application and certifications. In the second 
phase of the process, each winning bidder must file a more 
comprehensive long-form application (FCC Form 680).
    84. Every entity seeking support available in Auction 902 must file 
a short-form application electronically via the FCC Auction System 
prior to 6:00 p.m. ET on October 9, 2013, following the procedures 
prescribed in Attachment D to the Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice. 
The short-form application requires each applicant to establish its 
eligibility for bidding for Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support. Among 
other things, to establish eligibility at the short-form stage, an 
applicant must certify that it is a designated ETC in any geographic 
area for which it will seek support, or that it is a Tribally-owned or 
-controlled entity with a pending application for ETC designation, and 
provide the Study Area Codes (SACs) associated with its ETC designation 
and/or provide the names of its corresponding Tribal lands in lieu of 
SACs. Each applicant will also be required to provide a general 
narrative description of its access to the spectrum it plans to use to 
meet Mobility Fund obligations in the particular areas for which it 
plans to bid and certify that it will retain its access to the spectrum 
for at least five years from the date of award of support. If an 
applicant claims eligibility for a bidding credit as a Tribally-owned 
or -controlled entity, the information provided in its FCC Form 180 
will be used in determining whether the applicant is eligible for the 
claimed bidding credit. Each applicant bears full responsibility for 
submitting an accurate, complete, and timely short-form application. 
Each applicant must certify on its short-form application under penalty 
of perjury that it is legally, technically, financially, and otherwise 
qualified to receive universal service support funding. Each applicant 
should read carefully the instructions set forth in Attachment D to the 
Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice and should consult the 
Commission's rules to ensure that all of the information required is 
included in its short-form application.
    85. A party may not submit more than one short-form application for 
Auction 902. If a party submits multiple short-form applications, only 
one application may be accepted for filing.
    86. Each applicant also should note that submission of a short-form 
application (and any amendments thereto) constitutes a representation 
by the certifying official that he or she is an authorized 
representative of the applicant, that he or she has read the form's 
instructions and certifications, and that the contents of the 
application, its certifications, and any attachments are true and 
correct. An applicant is not permitted to make major modifications to 
its application; such impermissible changes include a change of the 
certifying official to the application. Submission of a false 
certification to the Commission may result in penalties, including 
monetary forfeitures, the forfeiture of universal service support, 
license forfeitures, ineligibility to participate in future auctions, 
and/or criminal prosecution.

[[Page 56885]]

B. SAC Identification

    87. An applicant will not be required to select the specific census 
blocks on which it wishes to bid when submitting its short-form 
application. Based on the SACs or Tribal lands information entered by 
an applicant, the FCC Auction System will identify during the 
application process bidding areas for which the applicant may be 
eligible. The FCC Auction System will identify the bidding areas on 
which the applicant is potentially eligible to bid based on information 
provided in the applicant's FCC Form 180. Applicants are reminded that 
this is not a determination of eligibility under the Commission's 
rules. The identification of an area as one in which the applicant is 
potentially eligible to bid does not mean that the applicant is 
actually eligible to bid for support in that area. Some of the areas 
may be outside the areas for which a bidder is actually eligible to bid 
pursuant to the Commission's rules--i.e., the areas in which it is 
designated as an ETC or, in the case of a Tribally-owned or -controlled 
entity, areas in its Tribal lands for which it has a pending petition 
for designation as an ETC.

C. Disclosure of Bidding Arrangements

    88. An applicant will be required to identify in its short-form 
application all real parties in interest to any agreements relating to 
the participation of the applicant in the competitive bidding for 
Tribal Mobility Fund support.
    89. Each applicant will also be required to certify under penalty 
of perjury in its short-form application that it has disclosed all real 
parties in interest to any agreements involving the applicant's 
participation in the competitive bidding for Tribal Mobility Fund 
support. If an applicant has had discussions, but has not reached an 
agreement by the short-form application filing deadline, it should not 
include the names of parties to the discussions on its application and 
may not continue such discussions with any other applicant after the 
deadline.
    90. Moreover, each applicant will also be required to certify under 
penalty of perjury in its short-form application that it and all 
applicable parties have complied with and will continue to comply with 
47 CFR 1.21002, the rule prohibiting certain communications. While 47 
CFR 1.21002 does not prohibit non-auction-related business negotiations 
among auction applicants, the Bureaus remind applicants that certain 
discussions or exchanges could touch upon impermissible subject matters 
because they may convey pricing information and bidding strategies. 
Further, compliance with the disclosure requirements of 47 CFR 1.21002 
will not insulate a party from enforcement of the antitrust laws.

D. Ownership Disclosure Requirements

    91. Each applicant must comply with the uniform Part 1 ownership 
disclosure standards and provide information required by 47 CFR 
54.1005(a)(1) and 1.2112(a) (47 CFR 54.1005(a)(1) requires the 
disclosure on the short-form application of the applicant's ownership 
information as set forth in 47 CFR 1.2112(a)). Specifically, in 
completing the short-form application, an applicant will be required to 
fully disclose information on the real party- or parties-in-interest 
and the ownership structure of the applicant, including both direct and 
indirect ownership interests of 10 percent or more, as prescribed in 47 
CFR 1.2112(a). Each applicant is responsible for ensuring that 
information submitted in its short-form application is complete and 
accurate.
    92. In certain circumstances, an applicant's most current ownership 
information on file with the Commission, if in an electronic format 
compatible with the short-form application (such as information 
submitted in an FCC Form 602 or in an FCC Form 175 filed for a previous 
Commission spectrum license auction, or FCC Form 180 for a previous 
Mobility Fund auction using the FCC Auction System), will automatically 
be entered into the applicant's short-form application (FCC Form 180). 
Each applicant must carefully review any information automatically 
entered to confirm that it is complete and accurate as of the deadline 
for filing the short-form application for Auction 902. Any information 
that needs to be corrected or updated must be changed directly in the 
short-form application.

E. Specific Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I Eligibility Requirements and 
Certifications

i. ETC Designation Certification
    93. In the USF/ICC Transformation Order, the Commission concluded 
that, in order to apply to participate in an auction offering Mobility 
Fund support, any entity first had to be designated as an ETC pursuant 
to section 214 of the Communications Act in any geographic area for 
which it seeks support, with one narrow exception for Tribally-owned or 
-controlled entities. An applicant must be the entity designated by a 
state or the Commission as an ETC in that geographic area. For example, 
if a designated ETC is a subsidiary of a parent holding company, only 
the subsidiary that is designated an ETC, and not the holding company, 
would be eligible to participate in the auction. For purposes of 
participation in the Mobility Fund, a party's ETC designation may not 
be limited in any way. Accordingly, a party designated as an ETC solely 
for purposes of the Low Income Program cannot satisfy the ETC 
eligibility requirement for the Mobility Fund on that basis. Of course, 
nothing prohibits such a party from seeking a general designation as an 
ETC and then, if it receives such a designation, participating in the 
Mobility Fund.
    94. ETC status carries with it certain obligations. So that a party 
might obtain the required ETC designation but not be subject to those 
obligations unless and until it wins any Mobility Fund support, the 
Commission further determined that a party might participate with an 
ETC designation conditioned upon the party winning support in the 
auction. The Bureaus note that prior to Auction 901, where the 
Commission granted a conditional designation, it did so contingent only 
on the applicant winning Mobility Fund Phase I support, thus requiring 
no additional substantive determinations post-auction. The Bureaus 
anticipate that the Commission will grant any request for conditional 
designation in the same manner for Auction 902, and they suggest that 
an applicant be mindful of this approach when requesting a similar 
determination from its state's designating authority. At the short-form 
application stage, an applicant will be required to state that it is 
designated as an ETC in any area for which it will seek support or is a 
Tribal entity with a pending application to become an ETC in any such 
area, and certify that the disclosure is accurate. A winning bidder 
will be required to provide proof of its ETC designation in all of the 
areas in which it will receive support before it may receive support.
    95. The Commission further decided to permit participation by a 
Tribally-owned or -controlled entity that at the short-form application 
deadline has an application for ETC designation pending for the 
provision of service within the boundaries of the associated Tribal 
land. The Commission did so to afford Tribes an increased opportunity 
to participate at auction, in recognition of their interest in self-
government and self-provisioning on their own lands. However, allowing 
such participation at auction in no way prejudges the ultimate decision 
on a Tribally-owned or -controlled entity's petition for ETC 
designation. Moreover, support will be disbursed only after an 
applicant receives such designation. A Tribally-

[[Page 56886]]

owned or -controlled entity that does not obtain and provide the 
required ETC designation will not be entitled to any support payments 
and may ultimately be in default in accordance with the rules. A 
Tribally-owned or -controlled entity whose application for ETC 
designation remains pending at the short-form application deadline 
should provide the date the application was filed, with whom (i.e., the 
Commission or relevant state regulatory agency), any file or case 
number associated with the application, and its current status. The 
following entities may be designated as qualifying Tribal entities: (1) 
Tribes, which are federally-recognized American Indian Tribes and 
Alaska Native Villages; (2) Tribal consortia; and (3) entities that are 
more than 50 percent owned and controlled by a Tribe or Tribes.
    96. GRIC/GRTI supports the Commission's rule requiring an applicant 
to state on its short-form application that it is designated as an ETC 
in any area for which it will seek support or is a Tribal entity with a 
pending application to become an ETC in any such area, and to certify 
that the disclosure is accurate. Bad River Tribe, however, argues that 
the Commission should only impose this requirement as a post-auction 
condition of funding. NTUA notes with concern that the lengthy 
timeframe that can be associated with resolving ETC applications may 
create a chilling effect on Tribal participation in the auction.
    97. The Commission adopted the requirement that, at the time of the 
short-form filing deadline, an Auction 902 applicant must be designated 
as an ETC for the areas on which it wishes to bid or, if it is a 
Tribally-owned or -controlled entity, have a pending application for 
ETC designation for the relevant areas within the boundaries of the 
Tribal land associated with the Tribe that owns or controls the entity. 
These ETC designation rules cannot be amended in the context of 
establishing procedures for Auction 902.
    98. Pursuant to the rules, an applicant's ETC designation must 
cover a sufficient portion of the bidding area to allow it to satisfy 
the applicable performance requirements. Additionally, as explained in 
the USF/ICC Transformation Order, a Tribal entity that wins support in 
Auction 902 while its ETC petition is pending must receive an ETC 
designation prior to support being authorized. Although the Bureaus 
realize that in some limited situations the ETC designation process can 
be arduous, the Commission takes significant efforts to resolve pending 
filings before it in an expeditious manner.
ii. Access to Spectrum Description and Certification
    99. Pursuant to the rules that the Commission adopted in the USF/
ICC Transformation Order, and as explained in the Auction 902 Comment 
Public Notice, any applicant for Auction 902 must have access to the 
necessary spectrum to fulfill any obligations related to support. In an 
application to participate in Auction 902, each applicant must describe 
its required spectrum access and certify that the description is 
accurate and that the applicant will retain such access for at least 
five years from the date on which it is authorized to receive support. 
Specifically, an applicant will be required to disclose whether it 
currently holds, leases, or has otherwise contracted for access to 
spectrum consistent with Commission rules and whether such spectrum 
access is contingent on obtaining support in Auction 902. For the 
described spectrum access to be sufficient as of the date of the short-
form application, the applicant must obtain any necessary approvals 
from the Commission for the spectrum access prior to filing the 
application. A pending request for such an approval is not sufficient 
to satisfy this requirement. Furthermore, only assured access is 
sufficient, which means that the access must be to licensed spectrum 
subject to limited access.
    100. Tribal entities responding to the Auction 902 Comment Public 
Notice reiterated policy concerns that have been raised in another 
rulemaking proceeding concerning the use of spectrum over Tribal lands 
and the difficulties Tribes face in acquiring spectrum in the secondary 
market. Several Tribal entities contend that requiring auction 
participants to have spectrum access as of the date they file their 
short-form applications for Auction 902 may preclude many Tribes from 
participating. Other Tribal entities urge the Commission to delay an 
applicant's certification regarding access to spectrum in the pre-
auction phase of Auction 902, and to instead impose the rule on winning 
bidders as a condition of funding.
    101. In the USF/ICC Transformation Order, the Commission rejected 
the suggestion of some commenters to apply a more relaxed standard that 
might allow entities to seek to acquire access to spectrum only after 
becoming a winning bidder. The Commission instead concluded that 
``failing to ensure spectrum access, on at least a conditional basis, 
prior to entering a Mobility Fund Auction would be inconsistent with 
the serious undertaking implicit in bidding for support.''
    102. The requirement for an applicant to obtain access to spectrum 
as of the date of the short-form application was adopted by the 
Commission as a rule and cannot be amended in the context of 
establishing procedures for Auction 902. The Bureaus recognize the 
challenges all applicants may face in negotiating access to spectrum 
over Tribal lands. The Mobility Fund rules afford entities the 
flexibility to consider whatever spectrum arrangements might meet their 
individual needs, as long as those arrangements comply with all 
Mobility Fund Phase I and other regulatory requirements. Accordingly, 
an applicant for Auction 902 should identify the license applicable to 
the spectrum to be accessed, the licensee, and, if the licensee is a 
different party than the applicant, the relationship between the 
applicant and the licensee that provides the applicant with the 
required access sufficient to fulfill its obligations related to the 
support. With the exception of the certification, the terms of which 
are set forth in FCC Form 180, an applicant must provide all required 
information relating to spectrum access in an attachment to FCC Form 
180, designated as a ``Spectrum Access'' attachment.
iii. Financial and Technical Capability Certification
    103. The Commission requires that an applicant certify in the pre-
auction short-form application that it is financially and technically 
capable of providing 3G or better service within the specified 
timeframe in the geographic areas for which it seeks support. This 
certification indicates that an applicant for Tribal Mobility Fund 
Phase I funds can provide the requisite service without any assurance 
of ongoing support for the areas in question after Tribal Mobility Fund 
Phase I support has been exhausted. An applicant should be aware that 
in making a certification to the Commission it exposes itself to 
liability for a false certification. An applicant should take care to 
review its resources and its plans before making the required 
certification and be prepared to document its review, if necessary.

[[Page 56887]]

iv. Certification That Applicant Will Not Seek Support for Areas in 
Which It Has Made a Public Commitment To Deploy 3G or Better Service by 
December 31, 2012
    104. The Commission requires each applicant for Tribal Mobility 
Fund Phase I support to certify that the applicant will not seek 
support for any areas for which it made a public commitment to deploy 
3G or better wireless service by December 31, 2012. In determining 
whether an applicant made such a public commitment, the Bureaus would 
consider any public statement made with some specificity as to 
geographic area, time period, and level of service. This requirement 
helps to assure that Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support will not go 
to finance coverage that carriers would have provided in the near term 
without any subsidy. Furthermore, the requirement may conserve funds 
and avoid displacing private investment by making a carrier that made 
such a commitment ineligible for Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support 
with respect to the relevant geographic area. Because circumstances are 
more likely to change over a longer term, the Bureaus do not hold 
providers to any statements for any time period beyond December 31, 
2012. Applicants should note that this restriction does not prevent a 
party from seeking and receiving support for an eligible geographic 
area where another provider has announced such a commitment to deploy 
3G or better wireless service.

F. Tribally-Owned or -Controlled Providers--25% Reverse Bidding Credit

    105. The Commission adopted a 25 percent ``reverse'' bidding credit 
for Tribally-owned or -controlled providers seeking either general or 
Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support. In order to be eligible for the 
bidding credit, a qualifying Tribally-owned or -controlled provider 
must certify in its short-form application that it is qualified and 
identify the applicable Tribe and Tribal lands.
    106. The bidding credit will effectively reduce the Tribal entity's 
bid amount by 25 percent for the purpose of comparing it to other bids, 
thus increasing the likelihood that Tribally-owned and -controlled 
entities will receive funding. If the Tribally-owned or -controlled 
entity were to win, support would be calculated at the full, 
undiscounted bid amount. The preference is available with respect to 
the eligible census blocks located within the geographic area defined 
by the boundaries of the Tribal land associated with the Tribally-owned 
or -controlled provider seeking support.
    107. The bidding credit adopted by the Commission applies only to 
Tribally-owned or -controlled entities with respect to bids for support 
within the boundaries of associated Tribal lands. In the USF/ICC 
Transformation Order, the Commission declined to adopt other types of 
bidding credits or prioritization mechanisms. The rule cannot be 
amended in the context of establishing procedures for Auction 902, and 
thus cannot be extended to apply to any entities that are not in fact 
owned or controlled by the Tribe or to areas outside of the Tribe's own 
Tribal lands.
    108. The Bureaus note that although the bidding credit applies to 
Tribally-owned or -controlled entities, it was adopted in recognition 
of Tribes' interest in self-government and self-provisioning on their 
own lands, and with the Commission's unique government-to-government 
relationship with Tribes in mind. As such, the Bureaus retain 
discretion to look behind assertions of Tribal ownership and assertions 
of Tribal control to ensure that the Tribe is the true beneficiary of 
the bidding credit. This standard would be satisfied by the following 
entities: (1) Tribes (federally-recognized American Indian Tribes and 
Alaska Native Villages); (2) Tribal consortia; and (3) entities that 
are more than 50 percent owned and controlled by a Tribe or Tribes.

G. Commission Red Light Rules

    109. Applications to participate in Auction 902 are subject to the 
Commission's rules regarding an applicant with delinquent debts, often 
referred to as the Commission's Red Light Rules. Parties familiar with 
spectrum license auctions should note that the stricter spectrum 
license application rules supersede the Commission's Red Light Rules in 
the context of a spectrum license auction. No corresponding provision 
applies with respect to Auction 902, however. Accordingly, the 
Commission's standard Red Light Rules will apply. Pursuant to the Red 
Light Rules, unless otherwise expressly provided for, the Commission 
will withhold action on an application by any entity found to be 
delinquent in its debt to the Commission for purposes of the Red Light 
Rule. Accordingly, parties interested in filing applications to 
participate in Auction 902 should review the status of any debts that 
they owe the Commission before submitting their application and resolve 
any delinquent debts. The Commission maintains a Red Light Display 
System (RLD) to enable entities doing business with the FCC to 
determine if they have any outstanding delinquent debt. The RLD enables 
a party to check the status of its account by individual FCC 
Registration Numbers (FRNs), and links other FRNs sharing the same Tax 
Identification Number (TIN) when determining whether there are 
outstanding delinquent debts. The RLD is available at https://www.fcc.gov/redlight/. Additional information is available at https://transition.fcc.gov/debt_collection/.

H. USF Debarment

    110. The Commission's rules provide for the debarment of those 
convicted of or found civilly liable for defrauding the high-cost 
support program. Applicants are reminded that those rules apply with 
equal force to the Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I.

I. Minor Modifications to Short-Form Applications

    111. After the deadline for filing short-form applications, an 
Auction 902 applicant is permitted to make only minor changes to its 
application. Permissible minor changes include, among other things, 
deletion and addition of authorized bidders (to a maximum of three) and 
revision of the addresses and telephone numbers of the applicant and 
its contact person. An applicant is not permitted to make a major 
modification to its application (e.g., change in control of the 
applicant or change of the certifying official) after the initial 
application filing deadline. Thus, any change in control of an 
applicant, resulting from a merger, for example, will be considered a 
major modification, and the application will consequently be dismissed. 
The Bureaus reiterate that even if an applicant's short-form 
application is dismissed, the applicant would remain subject to the 
communication prohibitions of 47 CFR 1.21002 until the long-form 
application deadline after the auction closes.
    112. If an applicant wishes to make permissible minor changes to 
its short-form application, such changes should be made electronically 
to its short-form application using the FCC Auction System whenever 
possible. For the change to be submitted and considered by the 
Commission, be sure to click on the SUBMIT button. After the revised 
application has been submitted, a confirmation page will be displayed 
that states the submission time, submission date, and a unique file 
number. The Bureaus advise applicants to print and retain a copy of 
this confirmation page.
    113. An applicant cannot use the FCC Auction System outside of the 
initial and resubmission filing windows to

[[Page 56888]]

make changes to its short-form application other than administrative 
changes (e.g., changing certain contact information or the name of an 
authorized bidder). If permissible minor changes need to be made 
outside of these windows, the applicant must submit a letter briefly 
summarizing the changes and subsequently update its short-form 
application in the FCC Auction System once it is available. Moreover, 
after the filing window has closed, the system will not permit 
applicants to make certain changes, such as the applicant's legal 
classification.
    114. Any letter describing changes to an applicant's short-form 
application must be submitted by email to auction902@fcc.gov. The email 
summarizing the changes must include a subject or caption referring to 
Auction 902 and the name of the applicant, for example, ``RE: Changes 
to Auction 902 Short-Form Application of ABC Corp.'' The Bureaus 
request that parties format any attachments to email as Adobe[supreg] 
Acrobat[supreg] (pdf) or Microsoft[supreg] Word documents. Questions 
about short-form application amendments should be directed to the 
Auctions and Spectrum Access Division at (202) 418-0660.
    115. Any application amendment and related statements of fact must 
be certified by an appropriate party. Appropriate parties include one 
of the partners if the applicant is a partnership; an officer, 
director, or duly authorized employee, if the applicant is a 
corporation; or a member who is an officer, if the applicant is an 
unincorporated association.
    116. Applicants must not submit application-specific material 
through the Commission's Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS), which 
was used for submitting comments regarding Auction 902. Further, 
parties submitting information related to their applications should use 
caution to ensure that their submissions do not contain confidential 
information or communicate information that would violate 47 CFR 
1.21002 or the limited information procedures adopted for Auction 902. 
A party seeking to submit information that might reflect non-public 
information should consider submitting any such information along with 
a request that the filing or portions of the filing be withheld from 
public inspection until the end of the prohibition of certain 
communications pursuant to 47 CFR 1.21002.

J. Maintaining Current Information in Short-Form Applications

    117. 47 CFR 1.65 requires an applicant to maintain the accuracy and 
completeness of information furnished in its pending application. If an 
amendment reporting changes is a ``major amendment,'' as defined by 47 
CFR 1.21001(d)(4), the major amendment will not be accepted and may 
result in the dismissal of the application. After the application 
filing deadline, applicants may make only minor changes to their 
applications.

IV. Pre-Auction Procedures

A. Online Auction Tutorial--Available September 25, 2013

    118. No later than Wednesday, September 25, 2013, the Commission 
will post an educational auction tutorial on the Auction 902 Web page 
for prospective bidders to familiarize themselves with the auction 
process. This online tutorial will provide information about pre-
auction procedures, completing short-form applications, auction 
conduct, the FCC Auction System, auction rules, and Mobility Fund 
rules. The tutorial will also provide an avenue to ask FCC staff 
questions about the auction, auction procedures, filing requirements, 
and other matters related to this auction.
    119. This interactive, online tutorial should provide an efficient 
and effective way for interested parties to further their understanding 
of the auction process. The Auction 902 online tutorial will allow 
viewers to navigate the presentation outline, review written notes, 
listen to audio of the notes, and search for topics using a text search 
function. Additional features of this web-based tool include links to 
auction-specific Commission releases, email links for contacting 
Commission staff, and a timeline with deadlines for auction 
preparation. The online tutorial will be accessible through a web 
browser with Adobe Flash Player. As always, Commission staff will be 
available to promptly answer questions posed by telephone and email 
throughout the auction process.
    120. The auction tutorial will be accessible from the FCC's Auction 
902 Web page at https://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/902/ through an 
``Auction Tutorial'' link. Once posted, this tutorial will remain 
available for reference in connection with the procedures outlined in 
this Public Notice and accessible anytime.

B. Short-Form Applications--Due Prior to 6:00 p.m. ET on October 9, 
2013

    121. In order to be eligible to bid in this auction, applicants 
must first follow the procedures set forth in Attachment D to the 
Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice to submit a short-form application 
(FCC Form 180) electronically via the FCC Auction System. This short-
form application must be submitted prior to 6:00 p.m. ET on October 9, 
2013. Late applications will not be accepted. No application fee is 
required.
    122. Applications may generally be filed at any time beginning at 
noon ET on September 25, 2013, until the filing window closes at 6:00 
p.m. ET on October 9, 2013. The Bureaus strongly encourage applicants 
to file early and allow for adequate time for the filing process. 
Applications can be updated or amended multiple times until the filing 
deadline on October 9, 2013.
    123. An applicant must always click on the SUBMIT button on the 
``Certify & Submit'' screen to successfully submit its FCC Form 180 and 
any modifications; otherwise the application or changes to the 
application will not be received or reviewed by Commission staff. 
Additional information about accessing, completing, and viewing the FCC 
Form 180 is included in Attachment D of the Auctions 902 Procedures 
Public Notice. FCC Auctions Technical Support is available at (877) 
480-3201, option nine; (202) 414-1250; or (202) 414-1255 (text 
telephone (TTY)); hours of service are Monday through Friday, from 8:00 
a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET. In order to provide better service to the public, 
all calls to Technical Support are recorded.

C. Application Processing and Minor Corrections

    124. After the deadline for filing FCC Form 180 applications, 
Commission staff will process all timely submitted applications to 
determine which are complete, and subsequently will issue a public 
notice identifying (1) those that are complete; (2) those that are 
rejected; and (3) those that are incomplete or deficient because of 
minor defects that may be corrected. The public notice will include the 
deadline for resubmitting corrected applications.
    125. After the application filing deadline on October 9, 2013, 
applicants can make only minor corrections to their applications. They 
will not be permitted to make major modifications (e.g., change control 
of the applicant or change of the certifying official).
    126. Commission staff will communicate only with an applicant's 
contact person or certifying official, as designated on the short-form 
application, unless the applicant's certifying official or contact 
person notifies the Commission in writing that applicant's counsel or 
other representative is authorized to speak on its behalf. 
Authorizations may be sent

[[Page 56889]]

by email to auction902@fcc.gov. In no event, however, will the 
Commission send auction registration materials to anyone other than the 
contact person listed on the applicant's FCC Form 180 or respond to a 
request for replacement registration materials from anyone other than 
the authorized bidder, contact person, or certifying official listed on 
the applicant's FCC Form 180.

D. Auction Registration

    127. Approximately ten days before the auction, the Bureaus will 
issue a public notice announcing all qualified bidders for the auction. 
Qualified bidders are those applicants with submitted FCC Form 180 
applications that are deemed timely-filed, accurate, and complete.
    128. All qualified bidders are automatically registered for the 
auction. Registration materials will be distributed prior to the 
auction by overnight mail. The mailing will be sent only to the contact 
person at the contact address listed in the FCC Form 180 and will 
include the SecurID[supreg] tokens that will be required to place bids, 
the ``FCC Auction System Bidder's Guide,'' and the Auction Bidder Line 
telephone number for bidding questions.
    129. Qualified bidders that do not receive this registration 
mailing will not be able to submit bids. Therefore, any qualified 
bidder that has not received this mailing by noon on Wednesday, 
December 11, 2013, should call the Auctions Hotline at (717) 338-2868. 
Receipt of this registration mailing is critical to participating in 
the auction, and each applicant is responsible for ensuring it has 
received all of the registration material.
    130. In the event that SecurID[supreg] tokens are lost or damaged, 
only a person who has been designated as an authorized bidder, the 
contact person, or the certifying official on the applicant's short-
form application may request replacements. To request replacement of 
these items, call Technical Support at (877) 480-3201, option nine; 
(202) 414-1250; or (202) 414-1255 (TTY).

E. Remote Electronic Bidding

    131. The Commission will conduct this auction over the Internet. 
Only qualified bidders are permitted to bid. Each authorized bidder 
must have its own SecurID[supreg] token, which the Commission will 
provide at no charge. Each applicant with one authorized bidder will be 
issued two SecurID[supreg] tokens, while applicants with two or three 
authorized bidders will be issued three tokens. Bidders cannot bid 
without their SecurID tokens. For security purposes, the 
SecurID[supreg] tokens, a telephone number for bidding questions, and 
the ``FCC Auction System Bidder's Guide'' are only mailed to the 
contact person at the contact address listed on the FCC Form 180. Each 
SecurID[supreg] token is tailored to a specific auction. 
SecurID[supreg] tokens issued for other auctions or obtained from a 
source other than the FCC will not work for Auction 902.
    132. The SecurID[supreg] tokens can be recycled and the Bureaus 
encourage bidders to return the tokens to the FCC. Pre-addressed 
envelopes will be provided to return the tokens once the auction has 
ended.

F. Mock Auction--December 16, 2013

    133. All qualified bidders will be eligible to participate in a 
mock auction on Monday, December 16, 2013. The mock auction will enable 
qualified bidders to become familiar with the FCC Auction System and to 
practice submitting bids prior to the auction. The Bureaus strongly 
recommend that all qualified bidders participate to gain experience 
with the bidding procedures. Details will be announced by public 
notice.

V. Auction Event

A. Auction Structure--Reverse Auction Mechanism

    134. Auction 902 will be held on Thursday, December 19, 2013. The 
start and finish time of the bidding round will be announced in a 
public notice listing the qualified bidders, which will be released 
approximately 10 days before the start of the auction. The Bureaus' 
choice of auction design for Auction 902--a single-round format with 
other design characteristics--is specific to the particular context of 
the Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I auction. The choices the Bureaus make 
here do not prejudge their future auction design choices for other 
phases of the Mobility Fund or other competitive bidding mechanisms 
related to the USF.
i. Single-Round Sealed-Bid Reverse Auction Format
    135. The Bureaus will conduct Auction 902 using a single round of 
bidding. The Bureaus conclude that a multiple-round auction would not 
be appropriate in the context of the Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I 
auction.
ii. Aggregation Method--Predefined Aggregation
    136. The Commission determined that the census block should be the 
minimum geographic building block for which support is provided, but 
left to the Bureaus the task of deciding how to facilitate bidding on 
aggregations of eligible census blocks. The Commission recognized that 
some aggregation of census blocks may be necessary because census 
blocks are numerous and can be quite small, but encouraged the Bureaus 
to consider permitting bidding on individual census blocks in Alaska 
because they are so much larger on average than census blocks 
elsewhere.
    137. Aggregation of census blocks by Tribal lands and census 
tracts. In the Auction 902 Comment Public Notice, the Bureaus proposed 
aggregating eligible census blocks by Tribal land, and subdividing the 
aggregation by census tract where applicable. That is, for any Tribal 
land covering more than one census tract, the eligible census blocks 
would be aggregated into one bidding area for each tract. Aggregating 
by Tribal lands may also create--for any census tract with more than 
one Tribal land--more than one bidding area for the tract. A bidder 
would bid on these bidding areas, not on individual census blocks. The 
Bureaus proposed that while census blocks in Alaska are larger than 
those in other parts of the country, aggregations by Tribal land and 
census tract--due to many instances of census tracts in Alaska covering 
multiple Tribal lands--would result in Alaska aggregations being closer 
in size to the aggregations in other parts of the country.
    138. In all eligible areas other than in Alaska, the Bureaus adopt 
their original proposal to establish bidding areas consisting of 
predefined aggregations of eligible census blocks. Under this approach, 
eligible census blocks will be grouped by the Tribal land in which they 
are located, and bidders will be able to bid for support for these 
bidding areas. Bidders will not bid on individual blocks, except for 
some blocks in Alaska. If a single Tribal land includes more than one 
census tract, then the Tribal land will be subdivided by tract for 
bidding area purposes; there will be one bidding area for each tract in 
the Tribal land. For each bidding area on which a bidder bids, the 
bidder will indicate a per-pop price to cover the population in the 
bidding area. The auction will assign support to an awardee equal to 
the per-pop rate of its bid multiplied by the population associated 
with the eligible census blocks within the bidding area as shown in the 
files provided by the Bureaus. A bidder may bid on multiple bidding 
areas and win support for any or all of them. This approach requires 
separate bids on individual bidding areas. An awardee will be required 
to cover a given percentage of the total population of the eligible 
census blocks in the bidding area.

[[Page 56890]]

    139. For Alaska the eligible Tribal lands will be identified using 
not only the Alaska Native village statistical areas (ANVSAs) that were 
originally proposed for inclusion in Auction 902, but also the 
boundaries of the twelve geographic Alaska Native regional corporations 
and the Annette Island Reserve, which together cover the entire state 
of Alaska. This requires that the Bureaus establish bidding areas that 
are different from those originally proposed for Alaska. The eligible 
census blocks in ANVSAs will be aggregated as proposed. That is, 
eligible census blocks will be aggregated by Alaska Native village 
statistical areas, and if an ANVSA covers more than one tract, there 
will be a bidding area for each tract in that ANVSA.
    140. For eligible census blocks in Alaska outside of ANVSAs, each 
block will be a single bidding area. As with other bidding areas, 
bidders will indicate a per-pop price to cover the population in the 
block. The auction will assign support to an awardee equal to the per-
pop rate of its bid multiplied by the population associated with the 
eligible census block, as shown in the files provided by the Bureaus. A 
bidder may bid on multiple bidding areas--be they individual blocks 
and/or predefined aggregations of blocks--and may win support for any 
or all of them.
    141. Coverage requirement. Each awardee will be required to provide 
voice and broadband service meeting the established minimum standards 
over at least 75 percent of the population associated with each bidding 
area for which it receives support--that is, at least 75 percent of the 
total population of the eligible blocks that comprise the bidding area. 
If a winning bidder covers more than 75 percent of the population 
within the required timeframe, it may collect support for up to 100 
percent of the population in the bidding area. The required minimum 
standards for service will depend on whether a winning bidder elects to 
deploy 3G or 4G service. Pursuant to the USF/ICC Transformation Order, 
awardees meeting the minimum coverage requirement could receive their 
winning bid amount for that population and for any additional 
population covered in excess of the 75 percent minimum, up to 100 
percent of the population associated with the eligible blocks, subject 
to the rules on disbursement of support.
iii. Winner Selection Process
    142. Under the auction format that the Bureaus adopt, during the 
single bidding round, bidders will be able to submit bids that indicate 
a per-pop support price at which they are willing to meet the Bureaus' 
requirements to cover the population in the eligible census blocks of 
the bidding areas covered by the bids. The population of each bidding 
area can be found in Attachment A, which is available on the Auction 
902 Web page.
    143. After the single bidding round closes, the FCC Auction System 
will rank bids from lowest to highest per-pop bid amount and assign 
support first to the lowest per-pop bid. An amount equal to the per-pop 
bid times the population in the bidding area will be deducted from the 
total available funds. The auction system will continue to assign 
support to the next lowest per-pop bid in turn, as long as support has 
not already been assigned for that geographic area, deducting assigned 
support funds from the remaining available funds. The auction system 
will stop assigning support when the next ranked per-pop bid implies a 
support amount exceeding the remaining funds available. A bidder will 
be eligible to receive support for each of its winning bids equal to 
the per-pop rate of the bid multiplied by the population in the 
eligible census blocks covered by the bid, subject to meeting the 
obligations associated with receiving support. For bidders claiming 
eligibility for a Tribal entity bidding credit, the auction system will 
reduce those bid amounts by 25 percent for the purpose of comparing 
them to other bids, thus increasing the likelihood that Tribally-owned 
and -controlled entities will receive funding.
    144. To ensure that the finite resource of universal service 
support is used to extend mobile voice and broadband services to as 
many people on Tribal lands as possible, the Bureaus may, in their sole 
discretion, stop assigning support in the rank order of per-pop bids 
immediately prior to a bid even though funds remain available. In 
determining when to exercise this authority, the Bureaus will carefully 
consider the costs and benefits given the unique challenges associated 
with deploying mobile broadband on Tribal lands, as well as whether 
dedication of the funds to other programs for eligible Tribal lands 
could help bring broadband to a greater number of people in those 
lands. The Bureaus conclude that these steps will reduce incentives to 
submit extremely high per-pop bids in an attempt to take advantage of 
the potential for reduced competition relative to Auction 901 and help 
assure that winning bids will make cost-effective use of the limited 
funds.
    145. Bids will be assigned a random selection number that will be 
used to determine the ranking of tied bids. If there are any identical 
bids--in the same per-pop amounts to cover the same block, submitted by 
different bidders--only the bid with the highest random selection 
number will be considered in the ranking. Tied bids for different 
areas, submitted by the same or different bidders, will be considered 
for support in the order of the random number. Bidders that submit 
multiple bids for the same per-pop amount for different areas, but that 
have a preference for the order in which the Bureaus consider such 
bids, may wish to vary the per-pop bid by some small amount in order to 
indicate a preferential ranking of the tied bids that otherwise will be 
ranked randomly.
iv. Limited Information Disclosure Procedures: Information Available to 
Bidders Before and During the Auction
    146. The Bureaus will conduct Auction 902 using procedures for 
limited information disclosure. That is, for Auction 902, the Bureaus 
will withhold, until after the close of bidding and announcement of 
auction results, the public release of (1) information from applicants' 
short-form applications regarding their interests in bidding areas in 
particular Tribal lands and (2) information that may reveal the 
identities of bidders placing bids and taking other bidding-related 
actions. Because the Bureaus will conduct Auction 902 using a single 
round of bidding, they do not anticipate a need to release bidding-
related actions during the auction as they would in a multiple-round 
auction. If such circumstances arise prior to the release of non-public 
information and auction results, however, the Bureaus will not indicate 
the identity of any bidders taking such actions. After the close of 
bidding, information regarding applicants' interests in eligible areas 
in particular Tribal lands, their bids, and any other bidding-related 
actions and information will be made publicly available.
v. Auction Delay, Suspension, or Cancellation
    147. In the Auction 902 Comment Public Notice, the Bureaus proposed 
that, by public notice or by announcement during the auction, they may 
delay, suspend, or cancel the auction in the event of natural disaster, 
technical obstacle, administrative or weather necessity, evidence of an 
auction security breach or unlawful bidding activity, or for any other 
reason that affects the fair and efficient conduct of competitive 
bidding. The Bureaus received no comments on this issue.
    148. Because this approach has proven effective in resolving 
exigent

[[Page 56891]]

circumstances in previous auctions, the Bureaus adopt these proposals 
regarding auction delay, suspension, or cancellation. By public notice 
or by announcement during the auction, the Bureaus may delay, suspend, 
or cancel the auction in the event of natural disaster, technical 
obstacle, administrative or weather necessity, evidence of an auction 
security breach or unlawful bidding activity, or for any other reason 
that affects the fair and efficient conduct of competitive bidding. In 
such cases, the Bureaus, in their sole discretion, may elect to resume 
the auction starting from the point at which the auction was suspended, 
or cancel the auction in its entirety. Network interruption may cause 
the Bureaus to delay or suspend the auction. The Bureaus emphasize that 
they will exercise this authority solely at their discretion.

B. Bidding Procedures

i. Bidding
    149. All bidding will take place through the web-based FCC Auction 
System. To place bids a bidder will upload a text file that includes, 
for each bid, the bidding area name and the bid amount, expressed in a 
dollars per-pop price to cover the population in the eligible census 
blocks of that bidding area. When a bidder uploads a bid file, the FCC 
Auction System will provide a verification that includes the bidding 
area names, the dollars per-pop bid for each bidding area, the 
population in each bidding area, the total bid amount for each bidding 
area, and the county, state, and Tribal land for each bidding area. The 
bidder then submits the bids, or the bidder can cancel the bids if it 
wishes to make changes.
    150. Bidders must submit their bids before the finish time of the 
bidding round, which will be announced in a public notice listing the 
qualified bidders, and which will be released approximately 10 days 
before the start of the auction.
ii. Reserve Prices
    151. The Bureaus conclude that a reserve price is not needed to 
ensure the commitment to fiscal responsibility made in the USF/ICC 
Transformation Order. The Bureaus will stop assigning support at the 
point at which remaining funds are insufficient to satisfy the next 
ranked per-pop bid. Thus, in Auction 902, the Bureaus will not award 
support at higher per-pop bid amounts but for lower total support 
amounts in order to use as much of the budget as possible. In addition, 
the Bureaus retain the authority to stop the assignment of support to 
unreasonably high per-pop bids.
iii. Bid Removal
    152. For Auction 902, before the end of the single round of 
bidding, a bidder will have the option of removing any bid it has 
placed. By removing a selected bid, a bidder may effectively ``undo'' a 
bid placed within the single round of bidding. Once the single round of 
bidding ends, a bidder may no longer remove any of its bids.
    153. To remove bids a bidder will upload a text file that includes 
the bidding area name for each bid it wants to remove. When a bidder 
uploads such a file, the FCC Auction System will provide a verification 
that includes the bidding area names, and the county, state, and Tribal 
land for each bidding area.
iv. Auction Announcements
    154. The Bureaus will use auction announcements to report necessary 
information. All auction announcements will be available by clicking a 
link in the FCC Auction System.
v. Auction Results
    155. The Bureaus will determine the winning bids based on the 
lowest per-pop bids, as described in the Auction 902 Procedures Public 
Notice. After the Bureaus announce the auction results, the Bureaus 
will provide downloadable files of the bidding and results data.

VI. Post-Auction Procedures

A. General Information Regarding Long-Form Applications

    156. After the conclusion of Auction 902, each winning bidder will 
be required to file a long-form application to demonstrate that it 
qualifies for Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support. Shortly after 
bidding has ended, the Commission will issue a public notice declaring 
the auction closed, identifying the winning bidders, and establishing 
the deadline for the long-form application. Winning bidders will use 
FCC Form 680 and the FCC Auction System to submit the long-form 
application. The public notice announcing the close of the auction will 
provide details regarding the submission and processing of the long-
form application. Unless otherwise provided by public notice, as was 
the case for Auction 901, a winning bidder must file its long-form 
application no later than 10 business days after being identified by 
public notice as such a winning bidder. The Bureaus note that in 
Auction 901, winning bidders initially had 21 business days to file 
long-form applications, and this deadline was later extended to 23 
business days. The Bureaus anticipate that they will provide at least a 
similar time period before the long-form application deadline for 
Auction 902.
    157. In addition to the long-form application process described in 
the Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice, any bidder winning support in 
Auction 902 must notify the relevant Tribal government(s) no later than 
five business days after being identified by public notice as such a 
winning bidder. The Office of Native Affairs and Policy (ONAP), in 
coordination with the Bureaus, has provided guidance regarding the 
appropriate points of contact for Tribal governments.

B. Long-Form Application: Disclosures and Certifications

    158. By the due date specified in the auction closing public 
notice, a winning bidder must electronically submit a properly-
completed long-form application (FCC Form 680) for the bidding areas of 
its winning bids. A Tribally-owned or -controlled provider claiming 
eligibility for a Tribal entity bidding credit must certify as to its 
eligibility for the bidding credit. Further filing instructions will be 
provided to winning bidders in the auction closing public notice.
i. Ownership Disclosure
    159. In the USF/ICC Transformation Order, the Commission adopted 
for Mobility Fund Phase I auctions the existing Part 1 ownership 
disclosure requirements that already apply to short-form applicants to 
participate in spectrum license auctions and long-form applicants for 
licenses in wireless services. Under these requirements, an applicant 
for Mobility Fund support must fully disclose its ownership structure 
as well as information regarding the real party- or parties-in-interest 
of the applicant or application.
    160. As the Commission has previously noted, wireless providers 
that have participated in spectrum license auctions will already have 
ownership disclosure reports (in the short-form application) on file 
with the Commission, which may simply need to be updated. To minimize 
the reporting burden on winning bidders, the Bureaus will allow them to 
use ownership information stored in existing Commission databases and 
update that information as necessary.
ii. Documentation of ETC Designation
    161. A winning bidder must submit with its long-form application 
appropriate documentation of its ETC

[[Page 56892]]

designation in all of the areas for which it will receive support and 
certify that its proof is accurate. Although a Tribally-owned or -
controlled entity may participate in Auction 902 so long as it has an 
application to be designated as an ETC pending at the relevant short-
form application deadline, a Tribally-owned or -controlled entity may 
receive Tribal Mobility Fund support only after it has become an ETC 
and has provided the appropriate documentation. Appropriate 
documentation should include the original designation orders, any 
relevant modifications, e.g., expansion of service area or inclusion of 
wireless services, and any relevant name-change orders. Any ETC 
designation documentation provided as an attachment to the long-form 
application must be designated as an ``Eligible Telecommunications 
Carrier'' attachment.
    162. Each winning bidder should connect the designated areas (e.g., 
wire centers, exchanges, and study areas) to its winning bid areas so 
that it is clear that the applicant has ETC status in each winning bid 
area. This obligation may be satisfied by providing maps of the 
recipient's ETC designation area, map overlays of the winning bid 
areas, charts listing designated areas and associated winning bid 
areas, and narrative descriptions explaining the connections between 
the ETC designations and the winning bid areas. An applicant must 
demonstrate that it has been designated as an ETC throughout a 
sufficient portion of each winning bid area to satisfy the applicable 
performance requirements.
iii. Financial and Technical Capability Certification
    163. As in the pre-auction short-form application stage, a long-
form applicant must certify that it is financially and technically 
capable of providing 3G or better service within the specified 
timeframe in the geographic areas in which it seeks support. This 
certification indicates that an applicant for Tribal Mobility Fund 
Phase I funds can provide the requisite service without any assurance 
of ongoing support for the areas in question after Tribal Mobility Fund 
Phase I support has been exhausted. An applicant should be aware that 
in making a certification to the Commission it exposes itself to 
liability for a false certification. An applicant should take care to 
review its resources and its plans before making the required 
certification and be prepared to document its review, if necessary.
iv. Project Construction Schedule/Specifications
    164. Applicants are required to provide in their long-form 
application a ``Project Description'' attachment for each winning bid 
with a detailed project description that describes the network, 
identifies the proposed technology, demonstrates that the project is 
technically feasible, discloses the complete project budget, and 
describes each specific phase of the project, e.g., network design, 
construction, deployment, and maintenance, as those details pertain to 
each winning bid. Applicants are urged to include an initial summary 
paragraph in layman's terms that describes the project for each winning 
bid. A complete project schedule, including timelines, milestones, and 
costs, also must be provided in detail for each winning bid. Milestones 
should include the start and end date for network design, start and end 
date for drafting and posting requests for proposal (RFPs), start and 
end date for selecting vendors and negotiating contracts, start date 
for commencing construction and end date for completing construction, 
and the dates by which the applicant will meet applicable requirements 
to receive the installments of Mobility Fund support. To the extent an 
applicant has one project description for multiple winning bids, it 
still must provide all of the specific details described herein as 
those details correspond to each winning bid. Additionally, applicants 
need to ensure that each winning bid's project description corresponds 
with the applicant's access to spectrum certification for each winning 
bid, and that all prior Commission approvals have been obtained. In 
order to demonstrate eligibility for Auction 902, applicants relying on 
Cellular Geographic Service Area (CGSA) expansion to demonstrate 
spectrum access must have prior approvals in place or alternative 
access to spectrum until such approvals are obtained.
    165. Applicants will indicate for each winning bid whether the 
supported network will provide 3G mobile service within the period 
prescribed by 47 CFR 54.1006(a) or 4G mobile service within the period 
prescribed by 47 CFR 54.1006(b). The description of the proposed 
technology should include information on whether the network will 
qualify as either a 3G or 4G network.
v. Spectrum Access
    166. Applicants are required to provide a description of the 
spectrum access that the applicant will use to meet its obligations in 
areas for which it is the winning bidder, including whether the 
applicant currently holds a license for, leases, or otherwise has 
contracted for access to the spectrum consistent with Commission rules. 
The description should identify the license applicable to the spectrum 
to be accessed. The description of the license must include the type of 
service (e.g., AWS, 700 MHz, BRS, PCS), the particular frequency bands, 
and the call sign. If the licensee is a different party than the 
applicant, the licensee name and the relationship and type of agreement 
between the applicant and the licensee that provides the applicant with 
the required access should be described. If the applicant is leasing 
spectrum, the lease number should be provided along with the license 
information. An applicant must provide this required information 
relating to spectrum access in an attachment to the long-form 
application that is designated as a ``Spectrum Access'' attachment.
    167. Applicants must also certify that the description of the 
spectrum access is accurate and that the applicant will retain such 
access for at least five years after the date on which it is authorized 
to receive support. Applications will be reviewed to assess the 
reasonableness of the certification.
vi. Letter of Credit Commitment Letter
    168. A winning bidder must submit with its long-form application 
either a Letter of Credit (LOC) for each winning bid or a written 
commitment letter from an acceptable bank to issue such an LOC. If the 
applicant submits a commitment letter, the letter must at a minimum 
provide the dollar amount of the LOC and the issuing bank's agreement 
to follow the terms and conditions of the Commission's model LOC, set 
forth in Appendix N of the USF/ICC Transformation Order. The commitment 
letter must be from an acceptable bank, as defined in 47 CFR 
54.1007(a)(1). The Bureaus waived 47 CFR 54.1007(a)(1) on their own 
motion to allow Auction 901 winning bidders seeking authorization for 
Mobility Fund Phase I support to use CoBank, ACB as an issuing bank for 
the required LOC, in addition to the acceptable banks described in 47 
CFR 54.1007(a)(1).
vii. Letter of Credit and Bankruptcy Code Opinion Letter
    169. After receipt and review of the long-form applications, the 
Commission will issue a public notice identifying each winning bidder 
and bid that may be authorized to receive Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I 
support. Upon notice from the Commission, a winning bidder for

[[Page 56893]]

Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support must submit an irrevocable stand-
by LOC, issued in substantially the same form as set forth in the model 
LOC provided in Appendix N of the USF/ICC Transformation Order, by a 
bank that is acceptable to the Commission. An LOC must be submitted for 
each winning bid in an amount equal to one-third of the winning bid 
amount plus an additional 10 percent of the winning bid amount which 
shall serve as a performance default payment. The Commission's rules 
provide specific requirements, as defined in 47 CFR 54.1007(a)(1), for 
a bank to be acceptable to the Commission to issue the LOC. Those 
requirements vary for U.S. banks and non-U.S. banks.
    170. In addition, a winning bidder will be required to provide with 
the LOC an opinion letter from legal counsel clearly stating, subject 
only to customary assumptions, limitations, and qualifications, that in 
a proceeding under the Bankruptcy Code, the bankruptcy court would not 
treat the LOC or proceeds of the LOC as property of the winning 
bidder's bankruptcy estate, or the bankruptcy estate of any other 
bidder-related entity requesting issuance of the LOC, under section 541 
of the Bankruptcy Code.
viii. Certification as to Program Requirements
    171. The long-form application contains certifications that the 
applicant has available funds for all project costs that exceed the 
amount of support to be received and will comply with all program 
requirements. The program requirements include the public interest 
obligations contained in the Commission's rules and set forth in the 
Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice. Also, an applicant must certify 
that it will meet the applicable deadline for construction of a network 
meeting the coverage and performance requirements set forth in the 
rules, that it will comply with the Mobility Fund collocation 
obligations specified in the rules, and that it will comply with the 
voice and data roaming obligations that the Commission has established 
with respect to Phase I of the Mobility Fund.
ix. Reasonably Comparable Rate Certification
    172. The Commission's rules require a recipient of Mobility Fund 
Phase I support--including Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support--to 
certify on its long-form application that it will offer service in 
supported areas at consumer rates that are within a reasonable range of 
rates for similar service plans offered by mobile wireless providers in 
urban areas. Recipients will be subject to this requirement for five 
years after the date of the award of support. Recipients must offer 
service plans in supported areas that meet the public interest 
obligations specified in the Commission's Mobility Fund rules and that 
include a stand-alone voice service plan.
    173. In the Auction 902 Comment Public Notice, the Bureaus proposed 
to permit a recipient of Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support to 
demonstrate compliance with the reasonably comparable rates requirement 
in the same manner as recipients of general Mobility Fund Phase I 
support. This would require a supported provider to demonstrate that 
its required stand-alone voice plan, and one service plan that offers 
data services, if it offers such plans, are (1) substantially similar 
to a service plan offered by at least one mobile wireless service 
provider in an urban area, and (2) offered for the same or a lower rate 
than the matching urban service plan. The Bureaus note that any 
provider that itself offers the same service plan for the same rate in 
a supported area and in an urban area would be able to meet this 
requirement. For purposes of Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I, the Bureaus 
proposed to treat any rate equal to or less than the highest rate for a 
matching service charged in an urban area as reasonably comparable to, 
i.e., within a reasonable range of, rates for similar service in urban 
areas. For purposes of this requirement, the Bureaus proposed to define 
``urban area'' as one of the 100 most populated CMAs in the United 
States. (A list of the top 100 CMAs is available in Attachment B to the 
Auction 902 Procedures Public Notice). The Bureaus also proposed to 
retain discretion to consider whether and how variable rate structures 
should be taken into account, and further proposed to address such 
issues on a case-by-case basis. To provide recipients with flexibility 
to tailor their offerings to consumer demand while complying with the 
rule, the Bureaus proposed to deem a Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I 
support recipient compliant with the terms of the required 
certification if it can demonstrate that its rates for services satisfy 
the requirements, and if it provides supporting documentation. Under 
this approach, the supported party must offer services at rates within 
the range but that do not exceed one particular rate that is presumed 
to be a part of that range.
    174. The Bureaus proposed to make a limited exception for supported 
parties serving Alaska in light of the distinct character of Alaska and 
the related costs of providing service, and in line with the approach 
adopted for Auction 901. Specifically, the Bureaus proposed that 
supported parties in Alaska may demonstrate comparability by comparison 
with rates offered in the CMA for Anchorage, Alaska.
    175. The Bureaus adopt the proposals in the Auction 902 Comment 
Public Notice for Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I, including the proposed 
limited exception for supported providers serving Alaska.
x. Tribal Engagement Requirements: Certification and Summary of 
Engagement
    176. Beginning at the long-form application stage, and continuing 
throughout the term of support, Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I winning 
bidders are required to comply with the Tribal engagement obligations 
applicable to all ETCs. As the Commission discussed in the USF/ICC 
Transformation Order, these obligations are designed to ensure that 
Tribal governments have been formally and effectively engaged in the 
planning process and that the services to be provided will advance the 
goals established by the Tribal government. Thus, the Bureaus encourage 
applicants seeking to serve Tribal lands to begin engaging with the 
appropriate Tribal governments as soon as possible. The Bureaus note 
that any such engagement must be done consistent with the rules 
prohibiting certain communications during the competitive bidding 
process.
    177. Any bidder winning support in Auction 902 must notify the 
appropriate Tribal government(s) of its winning bid no later than five 
business days after being identified by public notice as such a winning 
bidder. A winning bidder's engagement with the appropriate Tribal 
government(s) must consist, at a minimum, of discussion regarding: (i) 
A needs assessment and deployment planning with a focus on Tribal 
community anchor institutions; (ii) feasibility and sustainability 
planning; (iii) marketing services in a culturally sensitive manner; 
(iv) rights of way processes, land use permitting, facilities siting, 
environmental and cultural preservation review processes; and (v) 
compliance with Tribal business and licensing requirements. Thereafter, 
at the long-form application stage and in annual reports, a bidder 
winning support in Auction 902 will be required to certify that it has 
substantively engaged appropriate Tribal government officials regarding 
the minimum discussion topics, as well as any other issues specified by 
the Commission, and provide a summary of the results of such 
engagement. A copy of the certification and summary must be sent

[[Page 56894]]

to the appropriate Tribal officials when it is sent to the Commission. 
Appropriate Tribal government officials are elected or duly authorized 
government officials of federally recognized American Indian Tribes and 
Alaska Native Villages. In the instance of the Hawaiian Home Lands, 
this engagement must occur with the State of Hawaii Department of 
Hawaiian Home Lands and Office of Hawaiian Affairs. The Bureaus remind 
carriers that failure to satisfy the Tribal government engagement 
obligations could subject them to financial consequences including 
potential reduction in support should they fail to fulfill their 
obligations.
    178. The Tribal engagement obligations established by the 
Commission will apply to Auction 902. The Bureaus note that there are 
three pending petitions for reconsideration of certain aspects of 47 
CFR 54.313(a)(9), which mandates that annual reports on the Tribal 
government engagement requirements be filed by carriers receiving high-
cost universal service support other than or in addition to any 
mobility fund support. In addition, there is a pending petition for 
reconsideration and clarification of the Tribal Engagement Further 
Guidance.

C. Coverage Requirements, Reporting Obligations, and Payment 
Disbursements

i. Coverage Requirements
    179. Support recipients will be required to provide voice and 
broadband service meeting the established minimum standards over at 
least 75 percent of the population associated with the eligible blocks 
in each bidding area for which they receive support. Because Census 
data does not specify how population is distributed within a census 
block, the Bureaus sought comment on how to determine whether this 
coverage requirement is met. If a provider demonstrates new coverage 
over the entirety of an eligible census block, the Bureaus can assume 
coverage of the entire population of that census block. However, the 
Bureaus sought input on how to evaluate the population served by new 
coverage where a provider demonstrates new coverage over part of an 
eligible census block. In particular, the Bureaus asked whether they 
should assume that census block population is evenly distributed and 
assess coverage on the proportion of the geographic area covered, and 
they also sought comment on alternatives.
    180. The Bureaus conclude that support recipients will be able to 
prove coverage as follows. If an awardee can prove coverage of at least 
75 percent of the actual population associated with the eligible census 
blocks within a winning bid area, it may provide and prove coverage in 
any combination across eligible census blocks within that single 
bidding area, including providing coverage to more than 75 percent of 
the population in one eligible census block and less than 75 percent of 
the population in another eligible census block in the same bidding 
area. In response to comments, in the alternative the Bureaus will also 
permit proof of coverage by relying on a geographic area safe harbor, 
by which an awardee may show that it is providing coverage to at least 
75 percent of the geographic area in a census block as a proxy for 
providing service to at least 75 percent of the population within that 
census block. Because using a geographic proxy is a safe harbor, 
geographic coverage must be shown on a census-block by census-block 
basis, rather than within the winning bid area as a whole. In other 
words, if a winning bidder relies on the geographic area safe harbor 
for a particular winning bid area, it must provide and prove coverage 
to at least 75 percent of the geographic area of each eligible census 
block within that winning bid area. With respect to demonstrating 
compliance with the coverage requirements, the Commission's rules set 
forth the standards for applicable drive test data and scattered site 
testing.
    181. The Commission recognized the unique challenges of Tribal 
lands, which may have sparse roads and isolated populations for which a 
winning bidder would be required to prove coverage. In particular, 
given that the Commission adopted a population-based coverage metric 
for Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I, the Commission explained that 
providers may demonstrate coverage of an area with scattered site 
tests--i.e., a statistically significant number of tests in the 
vicinity of residences being covered. The Commission also noted that 
equipment to conduct such testing could be transported by off-road 
vehicles, such as snow-mobiles or other vehicles appropriate to local 
conditions.
ii. Annual Reporting and Record Retention Requirements
    182. Winning bidders that are authorized to receive Tribal Mobility 
Fund Phase I support are required to submit to the Commission an annual 
report each year for the five years after being so authorized. Each 
annual report covers the preceding calendar year. As a result, any 
Auction 902 winning bidder that is first authorized to receive Tribal 
Mobility Fund Phase I support in 2014 will not be required to file an 
annual report regarding such support until the applicable deadline in 
2015. The information and certifications required to be included in the 
annual report are described in 47 CFR 54.1009. As explained in the USF/
ICC Transformation Order, if a recipient of Mobility Fund support is a 
carrier subject to other existing or new annual reporting requirements 
under 47 CFR 54.313 of the rules based on their receipt of universal 
service support under another high cost mechanism, it will be permitted 
to satisfy its Mobility Fund Phase I reporting requirements by filing a 
separate Mobility Fund annual report or by including this additional 
information in a separate section of its other annual report filed with 
the Commission. Mobility Fund recipients choosing to fulfill their 
Mobility Fund reporting requirements in an annual report filed under 47 
CFR 54.313 must, at a minimum, file a separate Mobility Fund annual 
report notifying the Commission that the required information is 
included in the other annual report. In addition, authorized winning 
bidders are required to submit certain reports before receiving 
disbursements of support. A winning bidder authorized to receive Tribal 
Mobility Fund Phase I support and all of its agents are required to 
retain any documentation prepared for, or in connection with, the award 
of Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support for a period of not less than 
ten years after the date on which the winning bidder receives its final 
disbursement of Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support.
iii. Disbursement of Payments
    183. Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I support will be available for 
disbursement to authorized winning bidders in three stages, with the 
first disbursement made when the winning bidder is authorized to 
receive support. A recipient will be eligible to receive the second 
disbursement when it submits a report demonstrating coverage of 50 
percent of the applicable coverage requirements of 47 CFR 54.1006. The 
report a recipient files for this purpose will be subject to review and 
verification before support is disbursed. A recipient will be eligible 
to receive the final disbursement when it submits a report 
demonstrating coverage meeting the applicable requirements of 47 CFR 
54.1006. A party's final payment will be the difference between the 
total amount of support based on the population covered--i.e., a figure 
between the required 75 percent and 100 percent of

[[Page 56895]]

the population--and any support previously received.

D. Default Payment Requirements

    184. In the USF/ICC Transformation Order, the Commission determined 
that it would impose two types of default payment obligations on 
winning bidders: a default payment owed by Mobility Fund winning 
bidders that default on their winning bids prior to approval for 
receiving support, and a default payment owed by Mobility Fund winning 
bidders that apply for and are approved to receive support but 
subsequently fail to meet their public interest obligations or other 
terms and conditions of Mobility Fund support. Under the competitive 
bidding rules adopted in the USF/ICC Transformation Order, bidders 
selected by the auction process to receive USF support have a binding 
obligation to file a post-auction long-form application--by the 
applicable deadline and consistent with other requirements of the long-
form application process--and failure to do so constitutes an auction 
default. In addition, a performance default occurs when a winning 
bidder that the Commission has authorized to receive support fails to 
meet its minimum coverage requirement or adequately comply with quality 
of service or any other requirements upon which support was granted.
i. Auction Default Payment
    185. Any winning bidder that fails to timely file a long-form 
application, is found ineligible or unqualified to receive Mobility 
Fund support, has its long-form application dismissed, or otherwise 
defaults on its bid or is disqualified for any reason after the close 
of the auction and prior to the authorization of support for each 
winning bid will be subject to an auction default payment. Agreeing to 
such payment in event of a default is a condition for participating in 
bidding. In the event of an auction default, the Bureaus will assess a 
default payment of five percent of the total defaulted bid. Liability 
for the auction default payment will be imposed without regard to the 
intentions or fault of any specific defaulting bidder.
    186. The Bureaus' experience in Auction 901 has demonstrated that 
this amount, which is well below the maximum allowable percentage, 
provides bidders sufficient incentive to fully inform themselves of the 
obligations associated with participation in the Tribal Mobility Fund 
Phase I auction and to commit to fulfilling those obligations, and yet 
is not unduly punitive. The Bureaus anticipate that such a requirement 
here should serve to deter failures to fulfill auction obligations that 
might undermine the stability and predictability of the auction process 
and impose costs on the Commission as well as higher support costs for 
USF. The Bureaus therefore adopt their proposal.
    187. The Bureaus did not receive any comments on whether there 
should be an alternative methodology for calculation of an auction 
default payment, or whether an applicant should be required to furnish 
a bond or place funds on deposit prior to bidding. The Bureaus conclude 
that their adoption of an auction default payment calculated as five 
percent of the total defaulted bid will provide adequate protection 
against costs to the Commission and the USF, and therefore they find 
that establishing a bond or deposit requirement is unnecessary.
ii. Performance Default Payment
    188. A winning bidder that has received notice from the Commission 
that it is authorized to receive Mobility Fund support will be subject 
to a performance default payment if it fails or is unable to meet its 
minimum coverage requirement, other service requirements, or fails to 
fulfill any other term or condition of Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I 
support. The Bureaus conclude that in the event of a performance 
default, they will assess a default payment of ten percent of the total 
defaulted bid. The LOC that a winning bidder will be required to 
provide for each winning bid must include an additional ten percent 
based on the total amount of support for which the winning bidder is 
eligible.
    189. The Commission recognized in the USF/ICC Transformation Order 
that a Mobility Fund recipient's failure to fulfill its obligations may 
impose significant costs on the Commission and higher support costs for 
the USF and concluded that it was necessary to adopt a default payment 
obligation for performance defaults. In addition to being liable for a 
performance default payment, the recipient will be required to repay 
the Mobility Fund all of the support it has received, and depending on 
circumstances, could be disqualified from receiving any additional 
Mobility Fund or other USF support.

Federal Communications Commission.
Gary Michaels,
Deputy Chief, Auctions and Spectrum Access Division, WTB.
[FR Doc. 2013-22483 Filed 9-13-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-P