Qualcomm Inc. on Friday officially asked the Federal Communications Commission to grant it spectrum in the upcoming channel 60-69 auctions.
Qualcomm wants the commission to quickly award it spectrum to make up for the pioneer’s preference license it repeatedly denied Qualcomm in the last decade and fears the commission will run out of immediate remedies.
A U.S. appeals court in July ordered the FCC to swiftly find spectrum comparable to the Miami major trading area license, a license Qualcomm had hoped to gain in 1993 to help early adoption of its pioneering technology, cdmaOne.
The FCC plans to auction 30 megahertz of spectrum, one 20-megahertz license and one 10-megahertz license in six economic areas, in May. The government is transitioning channels 60-69 (746-806 MHz) from television use to other areas, including mobile phone and advanced fixed wireless services.
In its petition for declaratory ruling, Qualcomm asked for a 20-megahertz license in the Southeastern region of the United States, claiming no other suitable spectrum will become available for auction in the near future. The new spectrum also is economically comparable to the Miami MTA license, said Qualcomm.
Qualcomm said the commission has yet to offer it any spectrum. While the FCC has mentioned the possibility of giving Qualcomm returned C-block personal communications licenses, likely from NextWave Telecom Inc., Qualcomm said it appears the licenses will be tied up in lengthy litigation. Spectrum in the possible third-generation frequencies won’t be auctioned until 2001 and 2002.
The FCC did not return phone calls by RCR press time.
“We’re trying to accelerate the dialogue,” said Kevin Kelly, senior vice president of external affairs with Qualcomm in Washington, D.C. “This is the only real opportunity we’re going to have in a long time to resolve this.”
Qualcomm wants this new spectrum to showcase its proprietary High Data Rate technology, a high-speed data technology the company is promoting and hoping cdmaOne carriers will adopt to provide Internet access at megabit speeds. CdmaOne carriers today are lukewarm to the technology, unsure of whether they want to dedicate a 1.25-megahertz channel solely to this technology when voice service will be the primary driver of wireless for many years. Qualcomm said HDR technology will become commercially available by 2001.
The FCC in 1991 began offering the pioneer’s preference program as a way to give telecommunications innovators certain types of licenses without having to face competing applications. The commission in 1993 granted three broadband personal communications services licenses to Omnipoint Corp., American Personal Communications and Cox Enterprises Inc. It denied Qualcomm a preference license.
Since then, Qualcomm has fought the FCC’s decision. A federal appeals court in 1997 overturned the FCC’s rejection of Qualcomm’s application, saying the agency was inconsistent in awarding the licenses. After the ruling, Qualcomm negotiated with the FCC for the license, but the commission later claimed it had no power to grant Qualcomm the license since Congress took away this authority under the 1997 Budget Act.
The District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled in July that Congress’ action to eliminate the pioneer’s preference program did not apply to Qualcomm.
Qualcomm also petitioned the FCC to deny Omnipoint’s request to transfer its New York pioneer’s preference license to VoiceStream Wireless Corp. under their $1.7 billion merger agreement announced last summer. Qualcomm, stating it wanted the New York license as compensation, claimed Omnipoint didn’t fulfill its pioneer’s preference license requirements to substantially deploy the technology.
Today it’s unclear whether the FCC will act on the petition. VoiceStream has said it is confident the companies will receive FCC approval this quarter.
