Two wireless carriers petitioned FCC for treatment similar to th...

license applications and release from payment obligations. Summit Wireless acquired 13 of licenses in Auction No. 35, but that spectrum didn’t involve licenses tied up by NextWave litigation. However, Summit argued that it should have same opportunity for relief as that provided to winners of spectrum that since had been handed back to NextWave. “This would assure that all auction winners are treated similarly and have the opportunity to void their Auction No. 35 obligations,” company said. Summit had contended that since Jan. 2001 NextWave re-auction, value of licenses it won in that bidding also had dropped significantly. “That dramatic change in wireless valuation is the most significant change that has occurred since the start of the auction and is the most unforeseeable event,” Summit said. “The fact that long-pending litigation has permitted only some of the licenses ‘won’ in the auction to have been granted, while others have remained pending, pales in comparison.” In case of licensees who acquired licenses tied up in NextWave litigation, uncertainty involved contingent liabilities of those licenses, Summit said. Those whose licenses were granted because they weren’t part of NextWave spectrum still faced financial obligations involving “existing debt or eroded equity,” Summit said. “For all winners, the value now is far less than that at the conclusion of the auction and the licenses are far ‘under water’ vis-a-vis the obligations that remain in effect regarding them.” Summit argued FCC had failed to address issues it raised in proceeding when it granted relief to NextWave re-auction winners. Mountain Solutions, high bidder for 2 licenses in 1996 re-auction of C-block licenses, filed separate petition for reconsideration. It told FCC its applications for 2 C-block licenses had been pending before Commission for more than 6 years but NextWave relief order covered only Auction No. 35 winners. Mountain Solutions said that order unfairly “pigeonholes” it with earlier auction winners who received PCS licenses and then used dismissal options laid out by C-block restructuring order, designed to address dire financial conditions of some original C-block bidders who couldn’t make payments. Instead, Mountain Solutions compared itself to NextWave re-auction winners and said FCC had retained its down payment on licenses for more than 3 times as long. Mountain Solutions said it neither defaulted on its payment obligations nor received licenses.