News of the Week PCS licenses back on the block

Despite the last-minute efforts of a disgruntled bidder, the Federal Communications Commission began a re-auction last week of 18 C block personal communication services licenses for which the original winners defaulted payment.

Mountain Solutions, winner of 10 C block licenses and second-highest bidder for two of the defaulted licenses, filed two motions in the past two weeks-one with the FCC and one with a U.S. Court of Appeals-in an attempt to block the re-auction. The motion to the FCC was denied June 28, and the appeals court refused last week to block the auction from beginning.

Mountain Solutions believes that the licenses should be automatically awarded to the second-highest bidder and that a re-auction violates the original intent of the C block auction.

When the re-auction began July 3, 32 bidders had filed with the FCC. Mountain Solutions was among them but plans to bid only on the Colorado Springs and Fort Collins, Colo., licenses.

The re-auction recessed July 4 and 5 and will resume today. The process began at two rounds daily and will move to four rounds as of July 9.