Three Parties Seek Changes to FCC's Revised Designated Entity Rules
At least three parties are petitioning the FCC for changes to its revised rules for designated entity participation in auctions, approved in July by a divided FCC (see 1507160051). The Rural-26 DE Coalition asked the FCC to change its rules…
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to allow a single attorney to be an authorized bidder for more than one applicant where the applicants share no common ownership and aren't qualified to bid for licenses in the same or overlapping markets. “Adoption of such a rule will continue to protect against collusion and anticompetitive behavior while also ensuring that rural service providers and small businesses will be able to continue to rely upon the long-established relationships they have with regulatory counsel upon whom they rely to serve as authorized bidders,” the coalition said. Rural carriers represented by the Blooston Law Firm raised similar objections in a recon petition. The “exclusive bidder” prohibition in the DE rules is “overly broad because it would prohibit an individual attorney from serving as an authorized bidder for multiple clients even when those applicants are not affiliated, share no common ownership, and are not qualified to bid for licenses in the same or overlapping geographic areas, therefore posing no threat of collusion or other anti-competitive harm,” Blooston said. The Multicultural Media,Telecom and Internet Council asked the FCC to tweak its rules to allow winning bidders more freedom to sell the licenses they buy on the secondary market after the auction is over. The FCC’s competitive bidding report and order” identified the need for secondary market incentives, but didn't approve any, MMTC said. It asked the FCC to “convene all stakeholders and flesh out incentives that will advance the Commission’s objectives of competition and diversity with minimal need for agency oversight.” The petitions are filed in docket 05-211.