WASHINGTON-A settlement agreement between seven radio common carriers that have been squabbling since 1988 over a 931 MHz paging channel in New York City finally was cleared by the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Feb. 19.
The slate of 931 MHz winners has been modified to include SkyTel Corp., Page America of New York, TSR (formerly Tri-State Communications), TSR and Paging Partners, Enhanced Telecommunications Services, American Teltronix and Pellish (formerly Paging Plus).
According to the order, signed by WTB chief Michele Farquhar, “There have been several attempts to resolve challenges to grants of the applications for available frequencies in the New York market [between 1988 and 1997]. All attempts to resolve the disputes have, however, been frustrated by various applicants disputing the grants for those 931 frequencies.”
As a result of this order, the settlement agreement modifies an earlier settlement and resolves all pending litigation.
The players who had been locked in the dispute included Page America of New York as the original applicant for the frequency. SkyTel, Tri-State Radio Co., Contact Communications Inc. and Enhanced Telecommunications Services also applied for the four frequencies associated with the 931 MHz allocation.
Following a lottery Aug. 23, 1989, SkyTel, Tri-State, Page America and Contact received grants; and petitions for reconsideration by several other entities were filed following the award.
On Dec. 11, 1990, the SkyTel and Tri-State licenses were re-affirmed along with that of Page America. Licenses for Contact and Enhanced were dismissed, the bureau said, because frequencies were unavailable, and they filed applications to review.
During the course of reviewing these applications, the FCC’s former Mobile Services Division found that two other applicants also had filed for the New York City frequencies-American Teltronix and Paging Plus Inc.
The division also found two more compatible 931 MHz frequencies. In light of this discovery the matter then went to settlement, the results being SkyTel and Page America retained their original licenses and the other five applicants each were granted a frequency.
But the problems still weren’t over. On July 31, 1992, another carrier-Paging Partners Corp.-filed a petition for reconsideration, saying it had filed for one of the “found” frequencies and had not been included in the settlement talks. The licensees again went to settlement, including Paging Partners.
Following settlement talks, Enhanced and Tri-State decided to operate separate and joint licenses.
On July 26, 1996, the parties filed a settlement agreement that included the following: Enhanced’s licenses and pending applications will be assigned to Paging Partners, and Tri-State would be issued new licenses under its old call sign but specifying the same 931 transmitter sites authorized in the original Enhanced licenses. The two licensees would operate the frequency jointly on a 50/50 time-share basis from two transmitters located at the same site. According to the commission, Enhanced will be reimbursed for all of its expenses.
