The FCC rejected the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition’s petition for...
The FCC rejected the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition’s petition for reconsideration filed in the wake of a 2008 order approving Sprint Nextel’s partnership with Clearwire. PISC supported the transaction, but challenged the FCC’s decision to include 55.5 MHz of Broadband…
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Radio Services (BRS) spectrum in the screen used to evaluate the transaction. “We dismiss the Petition to the extent it challenges the inclusion of BRS into the spectrum screen because PISC lacks standing to raise such a claim in this proceeding given its full support for the Commission’s decision to grant these applications, and because the Petition is not an appropriate procedural vehicle for addressing PISC’s concerns about the application of the spectrum screen to future transactions,” the FCC said (http://xrl.us/bn7b6i). The commission also rejected PISC arguments that the partnership, New Clearwire, should face the “unique burden of reviewing its agreements to determine which provisions relate to its open network commitments, and then submit for prior Commission approval changes that affect those provisions, subject to a notice and comment process.” The coalition “advances no factual basis for imposing such a burden on New Clearwire in the competitive circumstances at issue here,” the order said. This week Sprint announced a deal to buy the remainder of Clearwire it doesn’t own (CD Dec 18 p7). The FCC launched a notice of proposed rulemaking in September examining how it evaluates mobile holdings when it considers wireless transactions.