US communications regulator, the FCC, has delayed the forthcoming auction of 700MHz spectrum to give interested parties more time to pull a plan together.

Auction 73 will now take place on January 24th, 2008, eight days later than originally planned. Bidders must apply for the auctions between November 19th and December 3rd.

The FCC has set a $10.4bn reserve on the auction and, much to the chagrin of Verizon, the regulator has maintained open access rules for the so called 'C block' of spectrum.

In September, Verizon Wireless took the FCC to court over the open access amendments to the licensing conditions. In August, the FCC bowed to pressure from a number of open access proponents, including Google, and revised its 700MHz band plan and service rules to facilitate the availability of "new and innovative wireless broadband services for consumers."

Although the FCC stopped short of including all of the demands cited by open access proponents, under the compromise rules companies that buy the spectrum will have to let customers use any device of their choice on the network, and download and access any application, provided they meet certain requirements.

But Verizon is not happy with the amendments and is suing the Commission over a change in the rules it believes to be "arbitrary and capricious, unsupported by substantial evidence and otherwise contrary to law."

Google, on the other hand, has said that it is prepared to spend up to $4.6bn to secure itself a chunk of the spectrum. The web giant is one of the biggest backers of open access and is calling for more competition in the broadband space.

US 700MHz spectrum, is currently occupied by television broadcasters but will be re-farmed and auctioned off as part of the switchover to digital broadcasting.

Just prior to the FCC's decision to delay the auction, US cellco AT&T paid out $2.5bn for a swathe of spectrum in the 700MHz band, positioning the carrier to offer new data services such as mobile TV.

AT&T acquired the spectrum from Aloha Partners. As part of the deal, AT&T will also get its hands on Hiwire, an Aloha-owned company piloting DVB-H mobile TV broadcasts in Las Vegas. The move could take AT&T head to head with Qualcomm spin off, MediaFLO USA, which operates its own nationwide mediacast network in the 700MHz band.

The Aloha spectrum has neither build-out requirements nor open access or public-private partnership requirements attached to it and AT&T can sit on the spectrum until it needs it some time down the line. No such luxuries apply to the spectrum that will be auctioned in January.

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