Carriers Won’t Stage Fight Over D-Block Allocation
Wireless carriers who want D-block spectrum to be dedicated to commercial use rather than public safety use say they have all but given up on trying to convince a majority of FCC commissioners to agree. The carriers’ greatest hope is that despite the FCC’s best efforts, and various changes to the rules, it will be unable to find a buyer for a second time.
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“The conventional wisdom seems to be right now the commission will take another run at a public-private partnership,” said an agency source. “If that doesn’t work, who knows?” Agency sources said FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is expected to circulate later this month an open-ended notice of proposed rulemaking full of questions but with few if any tentative conclusions on revised rules for a D-block reauction.
Martin has indicated he wants the auction to take place this year. Within those rules, the FCC could allow the sale of the spectrum for commercial use if a bidder does not come forward by a set date. Martin and others at the commission don’t hold out much hope that Verizon, AT&T or another major carrier will make a play for the D-block, agency and industry sources said.
MetroPCS and Verizon Wireless officials met separately last week with Commissioner Robert McDowell on the future of the D-block, according to ex parte filings at the FCC. “MetroPCS discussed the difficulties that regional and mid- tier wireless carriers experienced in bidding for wireless spectrum in the recently concluded 700 MHz Band auction,” the carrier said of its meeting with McDowell. “MetroPCS noted the significantly different results for the 700 MHz auction as compared to the advanced wireless services (AWS) auction.”
In the AWS auction, “several of the mid-tier carriers were successful in garnering significant spectrum and much of it in new geographic areas,” MetroPCS said. But in the 700 MHz auction, major regional carriers like Alltel and Leap Wireless “were completely shut out of the auction,” while others like MetroPCS “won considerably less than in the AWS auction.”
Verizon Wireless said General Counsel Steve Zipperstein met with McDowell. Zipperstein “suggested” that both Congress and the FCC “need to consider seriously all issues related to the appropriate disposition of the D-block,” the carrier said.
An attorney active in the proceeding said small carriers that pushed hard last year for the D-block to be made available as commercial spectrum don’t appear inclined to stage a similar fight before the D-block reauction. “It’s hard to see how it will change very much,” the lawyer said. “A lot of money was spent last time and some would say for not a lot of benefit.”
“I doubt that Congress and the FCC are going to relinquish the opportunity to have the D-block used for commercial and public safety purposes,” said an attorney who has been active on the issue. “Carriers and the association I represent most likely will be looking for opportunities to work in parallel with that concept and not oppose it.”