WASHINGTON-C-block personal communications services licensee General Wireless Inc. asked the Federal Communications Commission to deny an application for review filed May 5 by Antigone Communications L.P. and PCS Devco Inc. regarding GWI’s alleged collusion with Hyundai Corp. during the auction.
In its order earlier this year granting GWI’s licenses, the commission concluded there had been no collusion between the two entities during the auction, and that an analysis of GWI’s bidding patterns before and after Hyundai became an investor did not vary significantly. GWI refuted claims made by Antigone and Devco in their May petition that they won no C-block markets because they did not resort to collusion, adding that there had been no proof submitted that either would have won any markets in any case, even if GWI had not been bidding.
“The only substantive argument that objectioners raise … is whether a reference to specific markets in a draft agreement proposed by Hyundai constituted actual discussions between GWI and Hyundai,” GWI wrote. “The provisions in the draft agreement … reflect neither an agreement nor discussions between the parties of the proposals contained therein nor a communication by GWI of its intended bids or bidding strategies.”
GWI once again claimed that it never discussed bidding strategy with Hyundai, and that “as GWI demonstrated to the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, the draft provisions at issue were Hyundai proposals on which GWI did not comment.”
When GWI received Hyundai’s draft, it placed bids on eight markets in California and Florida that were adjacent to San Francisco, Sacramento and Miami, major markets in which it continued to hold the high bid.
“The commission records reflect that GWI never bid on the Austin [Texas] basic trading area license and did not bid on the Houston and Dallas BTA licenses after Feb. 20, 1996, and Feb. 22, 1996, respectively,” it wrote. “Given that GWI had been bidding on the Houston and Dallas BTA licenses regularly since the first round of the auction, its cessation of such bidding hardly reflects a communication by GWI to Hyundai that it would bid on such licenses in the future.”
As a backup example of how it made bids on certain strategic markets, GWI said it bid for West Palm Beach concurrent with making a play for Miami. GWI’s interest in West Palm Beach went only as far as its being successful in winning the larger city and, in turn, winning other surrounding markets to build a regional network.
