Fire-sale values this year on wireless spectrum and equipment fin...

of Small Telecommunications Cos. OPASTCO). They said leasing traditionally was prohibitively cumbersome to negotiate with licensees and FCC and exorbitantly expensive, especially considering network build-out. “You either own it or you can’t use it -- that was basically the situation with spectrum until quite recently,” former FCC Comr. Harold Furchtgott-Roth said. Although FCC rulemaking on secondary markets remains unfinished, the notice and related policy statement in 2000 gave regulators’ blessing to leasing, he said. He said would-be telcos needn’t worry much about lessors losing their spectrum because “typically unless something very odd happens, these things get renewed. Lawyer Caressa Bennet said risk of regulatory whiplash similarly was small. “The momentum at the FCC is to relax these rules,” she said. “Having people invested in this [spectrum leasing] makes it harder for them to do anything.” She said the FCC’s Spectrum Task Force should be encouraged to impose technology standards because excessive flexibility impeded manufacturers’ ability to reduce prices through mass production. Access Spectrum acquires capacity at auction and leases it, Pres. Mark Crosby said: “The Commission, I think, likes band management. It gets them out of some things -- licensing, compliance, ground rules -- and they get to hold one party [licensee] responsible.” He said carriers such as Winstar should be barred from leasing because they had conflicts of interest with telcos, and less commitment to leasing than specialized leasing firms such as his.