T-Mobile Trying To Keep Bidders out of TV Incentive Auction, Dish Tells FCC
T-Mobile arguments that Dish Network and designated entities SNR Wireless and Northstar Wireless shouldn't be able to participate in the TV incentive auction without being classified as “former defaulters” is a T-Mobile attempt to further bend the auction rules in its favor, Dish and the two DEs said in a joint opposition posted by the FCC Tuesday. Sanctions are needed to send a message that Dish and the DEs' behavior in the AWS-3 auction was “contrary to the Commission’s rules and policies and must not be allowed to occur in the future,” T-Mobile earlier told the FCC.
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As former defaulters, the three would have to provide a 50 percent higher upfront payment if they wish to participate in the incentive auction. Dish, bidding through the two DEs, was the second-highest bidder in the AWS-3 auction. In August the FCC denied the two DEs bidding credits to buy the spectrum but said they could keep the licenses. The FCC ordered them to pay an additional $3.3 billion for the spectrum, bringing the tally to $13.3 billion (see 1508180062). The order is the subject of a legal challenge by the DEs (see 1509180048).
T-Mobile’s claims are “mistaken and should be seen for what they are -- an attempt by T-Mobile to gain an unfair advantage by excluding or financially handicapping others in future spectrum auctions,” Dish and the DEs said. “Grant of T-Mobile’s requests would be harmful to competition and contrary to the public interest and unnecessarily limit the revenue potential of future auctions.” The three said T-Mobile’s petition was “simply an untimely challenge” to the FCC’s recently revised former defaulter policies and its decisions on Dish and the DEs following the AWS-3 auction.
“T-Mobile cannot now, months later, collaterally attack these final Commission conclusions … under the guise of a petition for reconsideration of a broadcast incentive auction procedural notice or a petition for declaratory ruling involving no unresolved controversy or uncertainty,” Dish and the DEs said. They insisted the DEs aren't former defaulters because “SNR and Northstar Wireless paid, within the relevant six-month window, all default payments due to the Commission.” The filing was made in docket 12-269.
The incentive auction “represents the last opportunity for competitive carriers to obtain low-band spectrum for years to come,” said Kathleen Ham, T-Mobile senior vice president-government affairs, responding to the Dish filing. “The FCC needs to hold Dish and the designated entities it controls accountable for the games they played last year if they decide to bid in the incentive auction.”