So now the Federal Communications Commission is mandated to study market entry barriers faced by small businesses and entrepreneurs, which could lead to reviving bidding credits and other incentives for women, minorities and others that are under-represented in the telecommunications industry, including wireless.
Isn’t this a little after the fact? The C-block personal communications services auction ended nearly a month ago. That was the auction originally touted to help minorities and women compete in an industry where not many minorities or women are in charge today.
The FCC hopes to start the D-, E- and F-block auctions by August. Will the FCC have completed its study by then? Don’t hold your breath. Reply comments aren’t even due until Aug. 23. Talk about being a day late and a dollar short.
Narrowband PCS bidders benefited from affirmative action; broadband PCS bidders in the C-block auction did not. Whether any future bidders will benefit from affirmative action depends on what the FCC finds in its study and what direction Congress is leaning that day.
Bidding credits are a crap shoot.
In light of that, I have to wonder if this is the best use of the FCC’s time when the agency has a pile of other things to implement as part of mandates under the new telecom law.
…*DCR Communications, now Pocket Communications, should give itself and its advertising agency a pat on the back for coming up with a brilliant new name and logo.
Up until now, I believed that names like 360 Communications and Lucent Technologies were OK, but that no great names could be used because all the great names already had been taken. Pocket has a much stricter focus (offering PCS) than those larger companies do, so perhaps its name was easier to choose.
Frankly, there has been some kidding at our offices about new names and logos. When Sprint Cellular became 360, I did have to read about why the company chose that name and why green apple was picked for the logo color. And I looked up lucent in the dictionary to affirm it meant shining and clear and wondered how much AT&T paid its advertising agency to develop a circular red logo that looks suspiciously like something a toddler could do.
But when Pocket was announced as DCR’s new name, I conjured up the image of a blue jean pocket-before I was told the logo was blue. Pocket’s name and logo are simple, easy to remember and appeal to the mass market, which is Pocket’s target audience. It almost seems too easy.
