Aloha Partners still is gunning for more lower 700 MHz licenses and hopes to announce more spectrum acquisitions in coming months, but sellers might prefer waiting it out until after the upcoming spectrum auction, President Charlie Townsend told us. Aloha agreed to buy 31 licenses in the lower C-block from LIN TV for $32.5 million Monday (CD Sept 18 p5). “LIN is the first of hopefully a number of acquisitions in the next couple of months that we're planning on making,” Townsend said. “Our objective is to fill in the remaining top 100 markets that we don’t own and we're either going to do it through the acquisition or go into the auction.”
Cellphone manufacturers are increasingly being asked to pack more features into smaller handsets, and regulators must keep in mind the technical issues raised by the orders they hand down, Steve Sharkey, director of spectrum and standards strategy at Motorola said Tuesday at the Washington spectrum management conference sponsored by Law Seminars International.
LIN TV will sell 31 lower 700 MHz C-block licenses to Aloha Partners for $32.5 million, it said. The licenses are clustered in Hartford and New Haven, Conn., Providence, R.I., Grand Rapids, Mich. and Austin, Tex. The deal will give Aloha, which has been buying up spectrum rights nationwide, coverage in 85 percent of the top 100 media markets. Through its Hiwire subsidiary, Aloha has been using the spectrum to test a mobile DTV system using the DVB-H standard in Las Vegas with SES Americom.
NTIA is on schedule and making progress in moving federal incumbents off the 1.7 GHz band so those who bid successfully in last year’s Advanced Wireless Services auction can make use of the band, NTIA Director John Kneuer told a Law Seminars International spectrum management conference sponsored. Thomas Sugrue, vice president of government affairs at T-Mobile USA -- a big winner in the AWS auction -- agreed. NTIA is “working through some issues” on relocation but preauction timetables filed by federal incumbents are being met, Kneuer said.
Magnacom Wireless has no right to proceeds from the FCC auction of licenses Magnacom once owned, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. “The FCC’s cancellation of Magnacom’s licenses extinguished Magnacom’s interest in those licenses and the underlying spectrum,” said the U.S. Appeals Court for the 9th Circuit, upholding a lower court decision. The appeal was filed by a trustee for the bankrupt company. Magnacom, a designated entity, filed for bankruptcy in 1998, the day before it would have been declared in default of installment payments for C- and F-block licenses won in 1996. The FCC cancelled the licenses, eventually reauctioning them. The agency also sought to recover $48 million that Magnacom’s bankruptcy estate still owed. The estate argued that the FCC instead should return any proceeds from the auction of the new licenses exceeding what Magnacom owed. The U.S. District Court in Seattle turned down that request; the appeals court agreed with the decision.
A MetroPCS-Leap Wireless merger remains likely, despite Leap’s public rejection of the deal, analysts said Monday. MetroPCS probably will increase its bid, and 700 MHz spectrum considerations may prompt the companies to combine before Thanksgiving, they said. On Sunday Leap rejected MetroPCS’s “surprise” merger proposal, citing concerns with Metro’s valuation of Leap, MetroPCS’s uncertain future and the bid’s “opportunistic” timing. “While our two companies may share the same basic business model, Leap is better positioned to execute and capitalize on industry growth opportunities,” Leap CEO Douglas Hutcheson said in an open letter.
With no fanfare, Verizon Wireless told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that it will challenge the FCC 700 MHz open access rules because the agency failed to abide by the Administrative Procedures Act. A two-page petition for review was filed Monday. Frontline Wireless called the move “baffling.” “Verizon’s lawsuit throws a wrench into the auction,” Frontline said, “under anti-trust precedent, it would not be able to hold this spectrum.” Verizon had warned before the FCC’s July 31 action (CD Aug 1 p1) that if the commission required open access, it would be an APA violation.
The Wireless Communications Association asked the FCC to schedule a re-auction of 77 broadband radio service (BRS) licenses forfeited after being issued by the agency in 1996. The move will “promote the deployment of advanced wireless broadband service to the public, particularly in the rural and underserved areas where many of these licenses are concentrated,” WCA said. “Moreover, new empirical evidence establishes that prompt re-auctioning these licenses will facilitate rapid transition of the 2.5 GHz band to the new bandplan adopted by the Commission in 2004 and promote the earliest possible deployment of wireless broadband services to Americans who reside within these BTAs.” The FCC sold licenses covering 493 basic trading areas (BTAs) in Auction No. 6, which closed in March of 1996. Authorizations were issued for all, but lost by 77 licensees who failed to pay. The FCC previously decided to delay the reauction until the completion of the BRS transition, or as late as April 2011. “WCA appreciates the benefit of providing auction participants with reasonable certainty as to what spectrum is available,” the group said. “However, that certainty would be provided by re-auctioning the 77 BRS BTA authorizations now. Reasonable auction participants will understand that, to the extent a BTA is not already undergoing transition at the time of the auction, the winning BRS BTA auction winner may have to act as the transition proponent pursuant to… the Commission’s rules to avoid losing its newly won license at the conclusion of the transition process.”
SAN JOSE -- Devices such as the iPhone and a Google phone for use in the 700 MHz spectrum eventually will pry open proprietary cellular networks, said a small midwestern telco’s CEO. “It’s real,” said Pat Riordan of Wisconsin’s Northeast Telephone, referring to a rumored Google handset. “I think they're going to make it and I think it’s going to change the nature of the business… This could open the whole thing up.” Riordan spoke late Tuesday on a panel at USTelecom’s Executive Business Forum.
The FCC Monday adopted an order approving a proposal by FiberTower to allow smaller antennas for 11-GHz transmissions (CD Aug 13 p1). Supporters said use of the 2-foot antennas will help carriers expand their networks as they offer 3G and 4G services, especially after the pending 700 MHz auction.