WASHINGTON-Rather than granting a spectrum-cap waiver requested by Arch Communications Group Inc., the Federal Communications Commission should remove the cap altogether, said Metrocall Inc. in comments filed last week. Meanwhile, two traditional one-way paging carriers urged the FCC to reject the waiver request.
Narrowband personal communications services carriers are not allowed to control more than 150 kilohertz of spectrum in a specific geographic region. Following a proposed merger of Paging Network Inc. and Arch, the combined company will exceed this limit in some markets.
“Although Metrocall therefore agrees that the NPCS spectrum cap is no longer necessary to preserve competition, Metrocall nonetheless wishes to point out the inherent unfairness of relying on the waiver process … All members of the messaging industry are subject to the same competitive pressures as PageNet and Arch … Rather than granting these parties a permanent or open-ended waiver, the [FCC] should repeal” the cap, said Metrocall.
However, Teletouch Licenses Inc. and Mobile Phone of Texas Inc. said they would be harmed if Arch is granted a waiver.
“If this waiver request is granted, Arch will be able to control five [NPCS] channels on a nationwide basis and would therefore have a significant economic advantage over [Teletouch/Mobile Phone] in those markets in which both carriers would be providing paging service. Such advantage may be expected to result in economic injury,” said the companies in separate filings at the FCC.
When Arch took over Mobilemedia Corp., it requested a similar waiver, but the FCC forced the company to divest those licenses that exceeded the cap within six months.
If the FCC rules similarly here, Metrocall does not believe the FCC should give an arbitrary regulatory edict on how much time it would take to divest the licenses. Instead, the agency should let the marketplace decide, said Fredrick Joyce, outside counsel for Metrocall.
