WASHINGTON-Following the conclusion of last year’s C-block personal communications services auction and of its 900 MHz specialized mobile radio auction, several winners that made their required down payments defaulted in one way or another on their second payments.
Those second payments would have brought winners’ total deposits with the government up to 10 percent of the net amount bid for the licenses.
Following more than a combined seven months of deliberation, the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau earlier this month granted those waiver requests with the condition that a penalty be paid.
The waiver requests were put on public notice for comment last October. Of 27 responses, four-filed by National Telecom PCS Inc., Wireless 2000 Inc., Conestoga Wireless Co. and Liberty Cellular Inc.-urged the commission to deny the licenses “on the grounds of fairness and on the basis that such defaults were evidence of bad faith.” Negotiations involving the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, FCC general counsel Bill Kennard and the FCC commissioners “took awhile to get everyone comfortable” with the outcome, said a source inside the agency.
Winners of 900 MHz licenses were notified by public notice June 28 that their second payment was due July 8; seven licensees failed to remit the required funds to the Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh. When the omission was caught by the FCC July 23 and relayed to the defaulters, payment was made almost immediately, and the companies submitted waiver requests to ensure that their licenses would not be forfeited because of the missed deadline. Licensees and 5-percent penalties were assigned to the following 900 MHz winners because they assumed the commission would keep enough of their upfront fees in their accounts to cover both the first and second down payments: Independence Excavating Inc., $6,040; Cenkan Towers L.L.C., $964; Electronic SMR Communications, $673; Hickory Telephone Co. Inc., $217; The Wireless Inc., $96; and CCS Communications Co., $649.
AMK International Inc. and MobileCall Inc. were assessed $100 and $402, respectively, for a late second down payment on three 900 MHz markets. Petitioners claimed that the public notice containing the date of the second down payment was not made available on the commission’s online bulletin board, upon which they depended, so payment was missed.
On the C-block front, five petitioners missed a Sept. 24 second-payment date and were assessed late-payment fees for the following reasons:
Wireless Telecommunications Co. must pay $2,150 because, according to company President Michael Tracy, payment was missed due to his attendance at an industry trade show coupled with a death in the family. Tracy also contended that he had sent an explanatory letter to the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, but had received no response.
R.F.W. Inc. must pay $72 due to a clerical error that resulted in an underpayment of the second down payment. Roberts-Roberts & Associates LLC was assessed $2,400 in late fees for the same reason.
Southern Communications Systems Inc. must pay $1,266 because it claimed it never received the public notice stating the due date.
MFRI Inc. was assessed $4,073 because it had not transferred sufficient funds into its checking account to cover the payment, and that “its voice-mail system malfunctioned so that no one could be reached by the Mellon Bank.”