WASHINGTON-In an extensive report submitted to Congress Oct. 9, the Federal Communications Commission outlined its experiences with spectrum auctions since the agency first was authorized to perform them in 1993, and it proposed five recommendations for legislative action that could improve the process in the future.
Specifically, the commission asked Congress to:
Clarify that FCC licensees who default on their installment payments may not use bankruptcy litigation to refuse to relinquish their spectrum licenses for reauction.
Give the commission explicit statutory authority to manage its installment payment portfolio flexibly, in a manner comparable to other government agencies that lend funds to regulated entities.
Exempt all auction rule makings from the regulatory requirements of the Contract with America Advancement Act.
Exempt auction contracts from certain provisions of the Federal Acquisitions Regulations.
Modify the statute of limitations for forfeiture proceedings against non-broadcast licensees from one year to three years.
The commission also proposed the following changes to the auction process: packaged bidding, which would allow players to place a single bid on a package of licenses; increased use of minimum bids and reserve prices; creation of a centralized ownership database; implementation of real-time bidding, and permitting pre-grant construction.
Despite all the problems surrounding the C-block personal communications services auction and the Wireless Communications Service auction, the FCC report detailed the successes of designated entities in the course of its completed auctions. Of the 4,368 licenses awarded by auctions thus far, 53 percent have been won by small businesses; 11 percent have gone to minority-owned businesses; 11 percent were bought by women-owned companies; and five percent went to rural telcos. The FCC also found that 80 percent of the 608 total winners qualified as designated entities.
