T-Mobile disputed Justice Dept. arguments for letting the FCC all...
T-Mobile disputed Justice Dept. arguments for letting the FCC allow blind bidding in a June advanced wireless services auction to block bid signaling seen in past auctions. DoJ’s logic is out of date, T-Mobile said. “The Dept.’s analysis is…
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flawed, and its reliance on the results of Auction No. 11 to support non-transparent bidding in Auction No. 66 is completely misplaced,” T-Mobile said. In a March 3 filing DoJ cited 1996-97 misconduct in Auction 11. Auction 11, long a subject of debate, was among those in which Mario Gabelli allegedly exploited rules encouraging small investors to buy licenses. “Mercury PCS used the last few digits of its bids to identify a specific BTA and thereby to signal another bidder, High Plains Wireless, that unless High Plains ceased bidding on a block of spectrum in the identified BTA, Mercury PCS would bid up the price for spectrum in another BTA that High Plains sought to buy,” DoJ said. DoJ admitted the FCC fined Mercury and changed its auction procedures. DoJ said it has identified at least one other example of bidders bending rules, in auction 58 for PCS licenses in Roanoke, Va. The Auction 11 example is irrelevant, T-Mobile said, calling the Roanoke case “one isolated example” after Auction 11. “If the Dept. has harbored concerns about the Commission’s transparent bidding practices, it has had ample opportunity to voice them before, during or after any of the fifty wireless auctions that have been conducted since Auction No. 11,” T-Mobile said.