Dear Editor:
My congrats on your article of May 12, “Paging firms bidding on spectrum in future will likely pay less” by Debra Wayne.
Mr. McGowan I believe hit the nail right on the head. The paging industry was not only founded but actually built by the smaller carriers providing high quality service to local customers … but as Mr. McGowan said, we are now being left out of the mix.
According to your article, the wireless communications services auction concluded on April 25th, only brought about 1 percent of what was expected. I guess the “golden goose” is dead?!
I have written many letters and have spoken to many of my competitors in the industry regarding the auction of paging frequencies, and I still haven’t heard one realistic idea regarding the auction. My company is in San Antonio, and it is ludicrous to believe that the government is going to auction off all of these frequencies that have been sitting idle for all these years (either idle or being “ID’d” only by the big carriers). I have no doubt that there will be an interest in several of the 900 MHz frequencies, but what about the 152.18 MHz, 152.09 MHz, etc?
I still maintain that this entire auction process is simply a means to artificially stimulate demand where there is none. I feel that 80 percent of all the people who do show for the auction (in whatever format they finally end up with) will be doctors, lawyers, dentists, etc. looking to speculate on “flipping” the frequencies they purchase. People such as myself who would use these frequencies to provide paging service in the marketplace, will be left out in the cold (in my case, by choice) because they are not willing to “bid” with the speculators.
Anyway, thank you for the article. I enjoy your magazine. Keep the little guys in mind. I think there are probably more of us reading your magazine than the PageNets and Motorolas of the world.
Randall M. McNallen
The Beeper Store
