Council Tree Communications urged FCC to not ‘play chicken’ with ...

co-sponsors Wed. that would indefinitely postpone auction by stripping away existing statutory deadlines. Auctions of both upper and lower bands of 700 MHz are set for June 19. FCC Wireless Bureau earlier this month kept that date intact, rejecting request for delay by CTIA, which filed petition for review of that decision Wed. FCC faces statutory deadline of Sept. 30, 2002, for depositing proceeds from Ch. 52-59 auction in U.S. Treasury. “Though some in Congress have long indicated an interest in postponing the start of these important auction events, no legislation has been enacted to modify the statutory mandate in the 5 years since it was instituted, suggesting that there has not been material interest in departing from the clearly established schedule,” Council Tree wrote to FCC Chmn. Powell Thurs. “The Commission should not ‘play chicken’ with the longstanding statutory deadline based on speculation that Congress will now act differently.” If FCC doesn’t begin lower 700 MHz auction on June 19, agency “clearly” wouldn’t be able to meet existing statutory deadline. Council Tree is prospective small business bidder that was part of investor consortium that included AT&T Wireless in Alaska Native Wireless, which won re-auctioned NextWave licenses. Lower band auction is for 758 licenses, whose “sheer number” would make it hard to predict how long it would last, making delay that would meet Sept. 30 deadline uncertain, Council Tree said. “The Commission should not create the circumstance in which this important auction would be ‘off’ one day and ‘on again’ the next,” company said.