FCC auction results show why designated-entity rules approved before the AWS-1 auction two years ago should be scrapped, said Council Tree, the Bethel Native Corp. and the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council. The organizations spelled out their objections to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. They want the court to throw out the results of the AWS-1 and 700 MHz auctions. "In the FCC's recent landmark sale of $19 billion of 700 MHz spectrum licenses in Auction 73, DEs won just 2.6 percent of licenses by dollar value, representing a precipitous drop from historical levels," they said. "Similarly, less then two years earlier in the FCC's $14 billion sale of Advanced Wireless Services licenses in Auction 66, DEs won just four percent of the dollar value of the licenses sold. Both of these auctions represent DE winning bid percentages far below the level of success experienced by DEs in the past." nnDEs won 70 percent of licenses by value in six previous auctions, they said. The DEs submitted data showing that in the 700 MHz sale, the top 70 licenses sold brought $15.2 billion, 80 percent of the auction's proceeds. DEs won none of those licenses. AT&T and Verizon Wireless, meanwhile, bought licenses worth $16 billion, or 84 percent of the auction by value, the DEs said. They said they had warned the court before the August 2006 AWS auction that the new DE rules would discourage participation, the DEs' supplemental filing said. The FCC replied that the rules would not "materially impact DE participation" in the auction, the DEs said. "There is ample evidence of the substantial deficiencies in, and far reaching negative consequences of, those rules."
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