WASHINGTON-The U.S. Supreme Court last week declined to hear an appeal of a pioneer’s-preference fee case filed earlier this year by Jackson, Miss.-based Mobile Telecommunication Technology Corp. Instead, it chose to remand the appeal to the Federal Communications Commission for further attention.
“Thousands of petitions are presented to the Supreme Court every year, but only a few of them are heard,” said Ann Marie Potts, an Mtel spokeswoman.
“During the time we filed for our license (in 1994), we got caught up in Congress’ auction legislation. It required us to pay 90 percent of what a license would bring at auction, which ended up being $33 million. We appealed to the FCC in 1994, and we are under no obligation to pay that fee until all decisions are final.”
Mtel, which received a nationwide narrowband personal communications services license in 1993 from the commission, originally brought a lawsuit against that agency in 1994, when it found itself required to pay a $33.3 million fee for the “free” license after the fact. According to Potts, who could not go into detail because the matter continues to be under litigation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia had remanded Mtel’s fee-reversal case back to the FCC in March 1995. While agreeing with the FCC that it did have the right to assess a price to Mtel’s pioneer’s preference license at the 11th hour if it could prove public interest, the appeals court required the commission to articulate its case better through a public notice, a further notice of rulemaking, written questions and answers and/or hearings. Earlier this year, Mtel petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its case.
Joel Marcus of the FCC’s Office of General Counsel could not pinpoint any timeframe in which new proceedings regarding this case would begin, adding that the appeals court itself had not assigned any timeframe. “These things get handled in due course, as soon as resources can be assigned,” he told RCR. If the final FCC decision upholds the fee assessment, Marcus continued, Mtel will be free to pursue another appeal.
