Another Group Tries To Block Spectrum Auction
Following last week’s lawsuit to stop the upcoming Advanced Wireless Services spectrum auction on health grounds, more groups have now petitioned to delay the auction, saying that new rules the FCC adopted to close some loopholes that let carriers grab huge discounts aren’t fair. Many large carriers would link up with smaller groups that could take advantage of small-business or minority-owned business discounts, essentially just buying licenses via a proxy, and new FCC rules made this essentially impossible. The FCC’s ruling rightly closed a loophole that was being abused, and these companies were essentially making money on arbitrage, rather than building networks as businesses, as the discount was intended to encourage. While the claims are pretty baseless, it remains to be seen if any of these petitions or lawsuits will actually succeed in delaying the auction — though it looks pretty doubtful.
