Council Tree and Bethel Native Corp., which challenged...
Council Tree and Bethel Native Corp., which challenged in federal court the rules for the AWS-1 and 700 MHz auctions, asked the FCC to reconsider a March order which rejected longstanding petitions asking for revisions to the auction rules. In…
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2010, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found problems with the FCC’s revised designated entity rules used during the auction, but let the auction results stand (CD Aug 25/10 p1). “The Reconsideration Order marks the FCC’s latest failure to correct the course first charted under the misbegotten Unlawful Rules,” the designated entities (DEs) said (http://bit.ly/ZBN3O3). “Time after time, culminating in the Reconsideration Order, the FCC has rebuffed Petitioners (and others), electing instead to conduct major spectrum auctions pursuant to the Unlawful Rules.” The March order (http://bit.ly/10YFnbe) errs in finding that the 3rd Circuit’s decision moots the need for other revisions to the rules, the petition said. The order addressed Council Tree’s complaints in a single paragraph, noting that the FCC had altered rules by deleting its impermissible material relationship rule following the 3rd Circuit order. “The FCC adopted the Unlawful Rules just a few weeks before Auction 66 was set to begin,” the petition said. “The rootless, irrational Unlawful Rules turned Section 309(j) on its head, throwing the DE community into disarray at the eleventh hour, and giving the largest incumbent wireless companies a relatively unencumbered path to spectrum acquisition. The FCC refused to grant Petitioners’ requested stay of the Unlawful Rules in advance of Auction 66, allowing those new rules to kill DEs’ bids and facilitate the large incumbents’ dominance. DEs won only 4 percent of the value of spectrum available in Auction 66 (compared to the historical average of 70 percent), while just four companies won 78 percent thereof."