Qualcomm Inc. said it tried to purchase Interim Standard-661 handsets from Omnipoint Corp.’s stores in New York, but was told the carrier only offered Global System for Mobile communications service phones.
This evidence should show the Federal Communications Commission that Omnipoint has not substantially deployed IS-661 technology, required to comply with pioneer’s preference rules, Qualcomm said in its latest filing with the FCC.
Qualcomm wants the FCC to deny Omnipoint’s request to transfer its New York personal communications services pioneers’ preference license to Voice-Stream Corp. and take back the license if it finds Omnipoint didn’t comply with its pioneers’ preference obligations. Omnipoint and VoiceStream want to complete their $1.7 billion merger agreement this year.
Omnipoint contends it has satisfied its license obligations by deploying the technology in specially modified GSM base stations that cover more than 30 percent of the population in New York. Omnipoint and VoiceStream also challenge Qualcomm’s right to protest the license.
The FCC began offering pioneers’ preference licenses in 1991 as a way to give technology innovators licenses without having to compete for them. It ended the practice in 1997, after legislation limited the program. Omnipoint convinced the commission to grant it a license for IS-661 technology, often described as a combination of Code Division Multiple Access technology and Time Division Multiple Access technology. Commission rules require pioneers’ preference winners to substantially deploy their technology within one-third of their POPs in five years from the license grant. Omnipoint’s deadline is in December.
The FCC left the term “substantial” deployment of use undefined. Qualcomm wants the FCC to define it as commercial use. Since Omnipoint doesn’t offer IS-661 handsets, it doesn’t offer the service commercially, said Qualcomm. IS-661 technology is sitting idle in the base stations, claims Qualcomm.
Qualcomm believes it has a right to the New York license since a U.S. Court of Appeals this summer ordered the FCC to find suitable spectrum and grant Qualcomm a pioneers’ preference license for CDMA technology after years of court battles spurred when the FCC originally denied Qualcomm the preferential license.
