WASHINGTON-The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau late Thursday said it is going forward with plans to auction Jan. 12 the licenses returned by bankrupt NextWave Telecom Inc. and other PCS licenses and said a request by the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association to open the bidding was “beyond the scope,” and it would deal with it at a later time.
“Unless the Federal Communications Commission decides otherwise, the current eligibility structure for C-block licenses (i.e. closed bidding for certain C-block licenses by only those entities that qualify as entrepreneurs) will remain in effect,” said the wireless bureau.
The Rural Telecommunications Group, which represents rural wireless carriers, applauded the bureau’s action.
“We consider the FCC’s preservation of the current eligibility structure for certain C-block licenses a victory for RTG, the rural wireless carriers we represent, and for rural America,” said Jessica Bridges, RTG chief executive officer.
To be eligible to bid for the closed licenses, an entity and its affiliates must have combined total assets of less than $500 million and must have had combined gross revenues of less than $125 million in each of the last two years.
CTIA said it was pleased that the spectrum was being made available but it has reservations about the use of designated entities and believes that bidding credits have proven to be a more effective way for small businesses to participate in auctions.
The FCC expects to begin auctioning the licenses Jan. 12-five years to the day that the FCC cancelled the licenses, the action that set it on a collision course with the U.S. Supreme Court. Ultimately, the court ruled in NextWave’s favor. NextWave returned the licenses as part of a settlement negotiated earlier this year
In other auction-related news, the FCC went ahead with an auction of Automated Maritime Telecommunications System licenses. The auction started and ended Wednesday after three rounds.
The FCC allowed the auction to go on as planned even though Mobex Networks L.L.C. had asked for a delay and for two of the applicants to be disqualified because they are controlled by the same person.
“Mobex says it cannot conceive of any legitimate reason why two or more commonly controlled entities would or should be permitted to participate in an auction in which both commonly controlled entities bid on the exact same licenses. Mobex’s inability to understand the underlying approach of Telesarus Holdings L.L.C and AMTS Consortium L.L.C. is not relevant to our determination. Significantly, Mobex has cited no rule or other authority that prohibits common control of two applicants seeking to participate in the same auction,” said Margaret Wiener, chief of the auctions and spectrum access division of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.
