An Illinois Congressman has asked the U.S. General Accounting Office to probe the Federal Communications Commission’s procedures in granting Nextel Communications Inc. enhanced specialized mobile radio licenses in the last decade.
Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.), chairman of the Tax, Finance and Exports subcommittee of the House Small Business committee, sent his request to the GAO based on concern from constituent Steve Grundset, president of SMR carrier Midwest Mobile Tel Inc. in Rockford, Ill.
Grundset and his D.C. attorney Robert Schwaninger, of Schwaninger & Associates, submitted to Manzullo a memorandum outlining improper actions by FCC staff that led to Nextel dominating the SMR market and sweeping the 1997 800 MHz private radio spectrum auction.
“We’d like the GAO to investigate and follow up with any action,” said Rich Carter, spokesman for Manzullo.
The GAO said it had not yet received the request. The FCC did not comment.
Schwaninger’s memorandum, which claims several instances of FCC wrongdoing since the early 1990s, indicates FCC staff processed numerous defective ESMR applications submitted by Nextel rather than denying them. Schwaninger, formerly associated with the law firm Brown & Schwaninger, said several FCC staff members in private interviews under confidentiality confirmed they were directed to maintain Nextel applications, regardless of defects, and process those applications.
The FCC in 1998 dismissed a two-year petition for special relief filed by Brown & Schwaninger over the defective applications claim. The commission said the allegations were untimely and contained factual errors based on incorrect or incomplete information.
In February 1998, Brown & Schwaninger filed a request for investigation with the FCC’s Inspector General’s Office to determine how the Nextel licenses were granted. Nextel asked the commission to dismiss this filing, claiming the law firm did not have standing to challenge the FCC’s licensing decisions. To date, the FCC has not acted upon the request.
Schwaninger, who represents a number of small SMR operators, and Nextel are long-standing foes. Nextel in recent years has called attention to Brown & Schwaninger’s “disturbing” conduct before the FCC and courts. Nextel in 1998 revealed that the FCC and the courts dismissed a number of lawsuits filed by Brown & Schwaninger regarding alleged perjury, proposed sanctions against other communications lawyers and defamation.
Schwaninger, on behalf of Small Business in Telecommunications Inc., in December filed a petition for review with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit against the FCC. The SBT said the commission failed to properly define a small business when it issued a new licensing framework for 800 MHz SMR service. The commission also did not disclose bidding rules for the 1997 800 MHz private radio auction until after the deadline for registered bidders, violating the Telecom Act, SBT claimed.
