Leap Wireless said Wed. it didn’t plan to participate in FCC’s lo...
Leap Wireless said Wed. it didn’t plan to participate in FCC’s lower 700 MHz band auction June 19. Commission late Fri. decided to allow lower band auction to be held on time but delayed upper band bidding 7 months.…
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Leap had said earlier this month it was filing short-form applications for both upper and lower bands to preserve its options to take part in bidding. It said it decided not to join Ch. 52-59 bidding because Commission had delayed only Ch. 60-69 auction to Jan. 14, 2003. When Leap filed to bid in what then was pair of June auctions, Chmn. Harvey White said he believed those dates would be “significantly delayed by either the FCC or Congress. Since this did not occur and because we believe a bifurcated 700 MHz auction is not favorable for the company, we will not participate in Auction 44.” Today (Thurs.) is deadline for prospective bidders in lower band auction to make upfront payments at FCC. Short-form applications, which provide FCC with financial information and details on which licenses entity plans to bid, have attracted wide array of broadcasters and telcos (CD May 29 p1). Among applicants are Cybergate, which is run by George Schmitt, chmn. and acting CEO of CLEC e.spire. He’s former pres. of GSM wireless carrier Omnipoint, which was bought by VoiceStream, and past chmn. of PCIA. Cybergate applied to bid on all cellular metropolitan area licenses and all economic area groupings in lower band. Also among prospective bidders Sweetwater Wireless, owned by PCS Constructors, which in turn is backed by Stephen Roberts and William Yandell. Yandell, who owns 49.9% of PCS Constructors, is CEO of Eldorado Communications and Roberts is managing dir. Eldorado had vied with NextWave for PCS licenses in 1996 C-block auction. Eldorado, which ultimately returned its licenses to FCC and filed for bankruptcy, recently raised concerns at FCC over NextWave proceeding, including lack of publicly available information on last year’s proposed settlement agreement. Other prospective bidders include Lynch 3G Communications, owned by Lynch Interactive. Mario Gabelli, chmn. of Gabelli Asset Management, is chmn. of Lynch and owns 23% of company. His media holdings have included stake in Black Entertainment TV and he was backer of Theta Communications, which bid in NextWave re-auction.