The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has updated a number of rules governing the use of the AWS-3 spectrum that is set to be auctioned off to cellular operators later this year, Telegeography.com reported on July 22, 2014. According to RCR Wireless, these updates include the establishment of “protection zones” designed to reduce interference between commercial wireless networks and the satellite-based communications services that will continue in select AWS-3 bands. As such, the watchdog said that it has set up 27 protection zones in areas where 47 “federal earth stations” will continue to receive satellite signals using the 1675MHz-1695MHz and 1695MHz-1710MHz spectrum bands. License users with base stations in those protection zones and operating near those bands will be required to coordinate services to ensure that interference concerns are mitigated.

The sale of 1,614 licenses, which is scheduled to take place this November, will offer 65MHz of frequencies in the 1695MHz-1710MHz, 1755MHz-1780MHz and 2155MHz-2180MHz bands. Of the licenses for sale, 880 will be for larger “Economic Area” franchises, while the remaining 734 will be for smaller “Cellular Market Area” franchises. Bidders are likely to include major carriers such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T, both of which will be looking to utilize the additional spectrum to bolster the capacity of their existing 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks.