WASHINGTON-Members of a small-business personal communications services coalition met with staffers representing Sen. Christopher (Kit) Bond (R-Mo.), chairman of the Committee on Small Business, to ask for his intervention if their emergency petitions filed last week at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit regarding the upcoming D-, E- and F-block PCS auctions are denied. The court could rule by Tuesday to allow the FCC to file a response.
At press time, the Federal Communications Commission was considering changing at least the filing dates for those auctions in response to the group’s concerns. A plan could be presented to FCC Chairman Reed Hundt today.
The National Paging & Personal Communications Association, Personal Technology Services Inc. and DigiVox Corp. cited futility as their reason for leapfrogging the FCC and going directly to the court. The court has been asked to force the FCC to act on the group’s July 17 petition for reconsideration regarding changes in the D-, E- and F-block PCS auction rules and associated financial requirements, and to stay the Aug. 26 auction start date. This extraordinary request was made because prospective bidders in the auction must submit applications by Wednesday.
To submit a plea to the court prior to a commission ruling is unusual, but NPPCA attorney Eliot Greenwald told RCR the commission made it clear that the auction will start on time and that his client’s pending petitions will be denied.
While reiterating every argument against new rule changes and the short timeframe in which to implement them made to the commission in their two pending petitions, the groups went further in their appeals-court pleading by writing, “The July 31 filing date has the profound ramification that small businesses*…*who are faced with the increasing financial commitment that has suddenly been thrust upon them and who are unable to arrange for additional funding within the unreasonably short time frame imposed by the commission will be forever precluded by the new rules from participating in the D-, E- and/or F-block auctions.”
In addition, petitioners pointed out that “while a stay would somewhat delay the provision of PCS service by the ultimate winners of the auctions, such a short delay would result in nothing more than a mere inconvenience to those parties who intend to bid in the D-, E- and F-block auctions. Parties who are most likely to object to the stay are multibillion-dollar corporations that are self-funding their license acquisition costs and are not relying on fragile investment relationships that can be shattered by adverse changes in the auction rules.”
The trio also weighed in against any uncoupling of the blocks to accommodate concerns small businesses may have about being left out of the auction process. Disaggregation of the F block, which has been set aside for entrepreneurs, “creates a block of participants that can be excluded from the investment opportunities mandated by*…*the Communications Act. As recently as the 1996 Telco Act, Congress has expressed its commitment to reducing barriers to market entry by small businesses. A segregated F block would be contrary to that intent,” the groups told the court. “However, the groups could live with a stay of just the F block if the court sees fit to do so.”
And this is where Sen. Bond could enter the picture. A Feb. 13 letter from the senator to Hundt following the signing into law of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 said in part, “Care must be taken in the implementation and operation of the new legislation so that the many small businesses that make up the telecommunications field are not inadvertently disadvantaged or excluded*…*I am dedicated to helping small business participate in the newly deregulated telecommunications industry.”
While one Bond telecom advisor who sat in on the meeting said that the letter to Hundt was aimed at pushing early hearings regarding barriers to entry, as dictated by the 1996 act, he said that small-business concerns about auction participation certainly are of interest to the senator as well.
Micheal Walker, NPPCA executive director, said Bond staff had seen a copy of the court filing, and that a subsequent meeting was planned for early this week on a plan of action should the court reject petitioners’ arguments. Walker also said a major public relations firm would be retained to help forward the group’s cause to the public.
