WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission received comments supporting its
definitions of “small business” and “very small business” in rules for the location and
monitoring service and wireless communications service spectrum auctions.
Comments on the definitions were
necessary under the Small Business Act, the Small Business Administration told the FCC in December. The comments
will not impact the outcome of the WCS auction or payment obligations of WCS licensees.
Small businesses and
very small businesses receive bidding credits of 25 percent and 35 percent, respectively.
The WCS auction closed
on April 25, 1997. The LMS auction is slated to begin Feb. 23.
In its rules for the upcoming LMS auction, the FCC
defined small business as “an entity with average annual gross revenues for the preceding three years not to
exceed $15 million,” and very small business as “an entity with average annual gross revenues for the
preceding three years not to exceed $3 million.”
The WCS definitions were taken from the broadband
personal communications services rules. Entities with average annual gross revenues for the preceding three years not
exceeding $40 million were considered small businesses, and those not exceeding $15 million for the preceding three
years were very small businesses.
The FCC received comments from Wireless Market Source and Comtrak. Both
iterated support the FCC definitions and indicated they expect to participate in the upcoming LMS auction. According
to the publicly available comments, no one expressed concern over the WCS auction.
In other LMS preparations,
the FCC on Jan. 21 denied a petition from Hennepin County, Minn., to be exempted from the LMS auction. Hennepin
County intended to use the spectrum for public-safety purposes, but the FCC ruled separate spectrum was set aside for
public-safety use, which is not subject to auctions.
“Hennepin argues that the [FCC] should evaluate spectrum
use on a case-by-case basis and allow non-commercial applicants, proposing a public-safety use of LMS spectrum, to
obtain licenses without engaging in competitive bidding … Such an interpretation would, in effect, give public-safety
providers a ‘right of refusal’ over any spectrum made available by the [FCC],” said the FCC in its denial.
LMS
is used to locate or monitor mobile radio units primarily located in vehicles and is expected to be a part of the emerging
smart highways program being developed by the Department of Transportation.
