Two US industry groups asked the Federal Communications Commission to pause its incentive auction for six days in September, as the so-called “forward” portion of the process got underway.

In an FCC filing, the Rural Wireless Association (RWA) and Rural Broadband Association (RBA) requested a halt on bidding from 7-9 September during CTIA’s annual Super Mobility conference and from 26-28 September during NTCA’s Fall Conference and RWA’s annual meeting.

The request was made so that smaller players involved in the auction can accommodate the upcoming events.

It said, of the 62 bidders that qualified to bid, more than half of those are members or are affiliated with RWA and/or NTCA, and the move goes some way to highlight the disadvantage some of the smaller players have against the country’s top operators.

AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile US are expected to spend billions in the auction of 126MHz of 600MHz frequency spectrum freed up by the country’s TV broadcasters.

“The Associations’ members have limited personnel resources to dedicate to auction participation,” said the filing. “Small staffs already manage a substantial workload, and auction participation over a lengthy and unpredictable time period will stretch limited personnel resources even further… The associations’ are concerned that travel to and from these events, as well as meeting participation, will disrupt these authorised bidders’ ability to bid in a timely fashion.”

The request comes as bidding in the second part of the auction commences, with the process consisting of “two two-hour long rounds per day”, starting today (17 August) “until further notice”.

As an alternative, if the FCC decided against suspending bidding, the industry groups asked for a limit to one round per day during the events in September.

According to reports, the auction could last from anywhere between a few weeks, up to next year.

The spectrum up for sale is said to be worth approximately $86.4 billion.