WASHINGTON-House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), responding to Federal Communications Commission delays in processing 50,000 fixed wireless applications that were dismissed last year, has introduced legislation to compensate 900 MHz multiple address system applicants for filing fee interest that has accrued since early 1992.
The Hyde bill said the U.S. Court of Federal Claims would have jurisdiction over any 900 MAS claims against the FCC.
Last September, the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau booted 50,000 900 MHz MAS filings but said applicants were entitled to filing fee refunds.
The question of interest on the long-held filing fees was not addressed at the time. The amount of money in question could add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, given that each of the 50,000 applications had a filing fee between $155 (for private wireless use) and $230 (for commercial use).
WTB’s action last fall accomplished two things. First, it took some heat off the bureau, which had been under fire by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) because of its monstrous licensing backlog.
Second, the September 1998 ruling paved the way for the FCC to auction 900 MHz MAS spectrum. The agency currently is crafting rules for the sale of 900 MHz MAS licenses. Public comments on the FCC auction proposal are due this week.
The 900 MHz MAS applications at issue were filed with the FCC in the early 1990s with the expectation that winners would be chosen by lottery.
The FCC’s delay in processing the applications, combined with 1997 legislation that outlawed lotteries, gave the agency the opportunity to dismiss the filings last year.
WTB Chief Thomas Sugrue, who took office in January in part to fix the problem, was scheduled to update McCain in writing Sept. 10 on how the bureau is reducing its regulatory backlog.
It unclear upon whose behalf Hyde is acting.
For now, it appears the Illinois congressman is not speaking for utilities and businesses that depend on fixed wireless for internal communication.
“I have not been unaware of any utilities being upset about the interest issue,” said Jeffrey Sheldon, vice president and general counsel of UTC, a trade association for utilities with telecommunications needs.
Sheldon said UTC’s main concern is getting MAS licensing off the ground after nearly a decade of delays.
Industry sources said they suspect Hyde may be championing the cause of speculators who applied for a 900 MHz MAS lottery in hopes of winning, then flipping the licenses for millions.
On a related front, Reps. Benjamin Gilman (R-N.Y.), Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) are pushing legislation that would reinstate three cellular applicants as tentative selectees in rural Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Florida.
The FCC, according to Gilman, disqualified three partnerships that won licenses in rural sections of the three states in 1992 after regulators found they had not complied with the “letter-perfect” application rule on foreign ownership restrictions.
Last year, Rep. Eshoo, former congressmen Joe McDade (R-Pa.) and Scott Klug (R-Wis.) tried to get similar rural cellular legislation through the House. The measure was attached to an anti-slamming bill that ultimately died in the 105th Congress.
The Gilman bill would require rural cellular partnerships to pay the FCC for the licenses and direct the agency to grant the licenses 90 days from the date of the legislation’s enactment. The permits could not be transferred for five years, and the Minnesota and Florida rural cellular permits would be subject to accelerated buildout requirements.
Under the bill, the FCC would auction the three rural cellular licenses if the operators fail to meet agency requirements.
