On Friday, The Federal Communications Commission announced that it would auction off 10MHz of national spectrum on January 14, 2014, making it the first auction of its kind in 5 years. The spectrum portion is in the 1900MHz band and is known as the PCS H block. The FCC has set the minimum bid for the spectrum property at $1.56 billion.

The licensing is just a portion of what's to come, too. In 2012, congress passed the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act, which required the FCC to license 65MHz of spectrum by 2015, including the 10MHz that will be auctioned off in January. Acting commission chair Mignon Clyburn noted that the billions of dollars that the FCC will collect from the licensing will contribute to funding FirstNet, a program to build an LTE mobile network for first responders like police and fire officials.

The decision to auction the 10MHz of spectrum wasn't unanimously applauded, however. FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel felt that all 65 MHz of spectrum should be auctioned off at once, rather than piecemeal, because “as Wall Street analysts have noted, splitting this spectrum up for auction will likely limit interest in the H block to only one, or possibly two bidders.” AndroidCentral speculates that Sprint and Dish will be interested in the January 14 auction because of their holdings in adjacent spectrum.