The results thus far of the FCC's ongoing advanced wireless services (AWS) auction offer 'immediate evidence' that the Commission's new rules for smaller would-be wireless licensees, known as designated entities (DEs), are 'flawed' and have led to a 'collapse' of the 'historic level of small business success' in spectrum auctions, DE interests have told a federal appeals court in a case that, if successful, could nullify the results of the AWS auction, which has garnered more than $13 billion in net high bids to date.
In a brief filed yesterday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (Philadelphia), Council Tree Communications, Inc.,
Bethel Native Corp., and the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council argued that the FCC's 'eleventh-hour revisions' to rules governing DE participation in spectrum auctions prior to the opening of the AWS auction violated the Administrative Procedure Act, the Regulatory Flexibility Act, section 309(j) (promoting opportunities for DEs) of the 1934 Communications Act, and section 257 (market-entry barriers) of the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
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