WASHINGTON-Mobile-phone carriers have abandoned legal challenges to a Federal Communications Commission rule permitting mobile satellite service operators to build land-based cellular networks with some of their frequencies to supplement satellite operations.
Verizon Wireless, the No. 2 mobile-phone operator, last week filed a motion to dismiss its suit at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Cingular Wireless L.L.C. chose not to file an appeal by the June 13 deadline for challenging the February FCC decision affirming MSS authority to implement an “ancillary terrestrial component.”
The mobile-phone industry has long argued that allowing financially troubled MSS licensees to use satellite frequencies to provide cell-phone service indistinguishable from their own services-without giving others a chance to compete for land-based spectrum at auction-is illegal.
