Spectrum Auction: Laying out the ground rules for the auction of these prime blocks

THE 10 COMPANIES vying for beachfront spectrum in Industry Canada’s 700 MHz auction set to begin Tuesday will have to navigate a complicated format that moves through various stages from interest in spectrum blocks to packages of licences and ultimately to specific frequencies.During an Industry Canada technical briefing on the auction on Monday, a senior official with the department noted that this format, called a combinatorial clock auction (CCA), is now commonly used around the world. It’s used “because it features package bidding and eliminates what is known as exposure risk, which in layman’s terms is getting some but not...