Four National Wireless Carriers Trade Shots on Need to Revise Spectrum Holdings Rules Before Incentive Auction
AT&T, Mobile Future and Verizon each called on the FCC to reject T-Mobile and Sprint petitions a>sking the agency to make major changes to spectrum aggregation rules prior to the TV incentive auction. Sprint and T-Mobile sought changes last month (CD Aug 13 p1).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
Industry lawyers tell us Sprint and T-Mobile likely face an uphill climb trying to get changes to the rules, which have been the subject of a fight and eventual compromise among FCC Democrats prior to the adoption of the spectrum holdings order in May (CD May 16 p4).
T-Mobile argued that the FCC went too far to accommodate AT&T and Verizon at the expense of challengers and sought a rule change that would give competitors to AT&T & Verizon more guaranteed spectrum in the auction (http://bit.ly/1mFZ10O). Sprint (http://bit.ly/1sSb9BE) challenged the order primarily because the FCC rejected its proposal to weigh different spectrum differently as Sprint had proposed.
Neither Sprint nor T-Mobile met the FCC standard for changing its rules in response to recon petitions, Verizon said. Neither carrier “demonstrates a material error or omission in the underlying order or raises additional facts that were not previously known or that the Commission failed to consider,” Verizon said. Verizon quoted from a 1989 FCC order: “The public interest in expeditious resolution of Commission proceedings is done a disservice if the Commission readdresses arguments and issues it has already considered."
AT&T filed separate oppositions to the petitions and released a statement by Joan Marsh, vice president-federal policy: “In establishing rules for the 600 MHz auction, the FCC sought to strike a balance between creating a competitive marketplace for the re-allocation of valuable spectrum while ensuring that the auction produced a multiplicity of winners.” T-Mobile wants to “gut” a “carefully balanced framework adopted by the Commission to turn it into a one-sided regulatory windfall for reserve-eligible bidders,” she said. AT&T opposes the Sprint petition because it raises no new facts or arguments, she said. “The Commission correctly rejected the spectrum weighting scheme that Sprint continues to support."
Mobile Future also asked the FCC to reject Sprint and T-Mobile’s arguments. “Nothing has changed since the Commission made its decisions, and it therefore should summarily dismiss the petitions,” Mobile Future said. Spokesmen for Sprint and T-Mobile declined to comment Thursday.