FCC Obligated Under APA to Award 2.5 GHz Licenses to T-Mobile: FSF
The FCC may be violating the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to issue 2.5 GHz licenses to T-Mobile, which it won in a 2022 auction, Free State Foundation Director-Communications Policy Studies Seth Cooper blogged Thursday. The FCC faced growing pressure…
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to award the licenses but maintains it doesn’t have the authority to do so following the March expiration of its auction authority (see 2307070042). Section 706(1) of the APA “authorizes courts to ‘compel agency action unlawfully withheld or unreasonably delayed,’” Cooper wrote, but he said he’s not arguing litigation is necessary to force the FCC to act. “T-Mobile reasonably relied to its detriment on the Commission's rules, the 2019 [2.5 GHz] order, and the agency's auction procedures,” he said: “T-Mobile is materially prejudiced by the agency's indefinite withholding of licenses worth $304 million, as it is being denied the benefit of using the spectrum to offer 5G services to consumers. Thus, all the elements for mandamus relief based on a claim of agency action unlawfully withheld or unreasonably delayed are present.”