US FCC air-ground wireless license auction on hold Reuters Fri May 12, 2006 12:30 PM ET
http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=governmentFilingsNews&storyID=2006-05-12T163051Z_01_N12419387_RTRIDST_0_TELECOMS-AUCTION-DELAY.XML WASHINGTON, May 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Friday suspended until Monday its auction of wireless licenses for Internet access and other communications services aboard commercial airplanes. Units of Verizon Communications (VZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and JetBlue Airways Corp. (JBLU.O: Quote, Profile, Research) have been the most well-known bidders in the sale which began on Wednesday. The agency had stopped the sale midday on Thursday with initial plans to resume Friday. The agency instead suspended bidding until 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) Monday. "The FCC will set the pace of the auction based upon its monitoring of the bidding activity and its assessment of the auction's progress," the agency said in a notice. An FCC spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment. After eight rounds of bidding, Unison Spectrum LLC has the highest offer of $4.5 million for a 3 megahertz license while Space Data Spectrum Holdings LLC has the top bid for the other 1 megahertz license with an offer of $244,000. Unison has declined to comment on its plans. The auction will end when none of the qualified bidders makes a new offer and does not withdraw a previously provisional winning bid during a round. The airwaves up for sale include those licensed to Verizon's Airfone service, which offers service through phones embedded in airline passenger seats. Consumers have balked at the Airfone service because of its relatively high cost. The sale, however, would not mean passengers could use their own cell phones during commercial flights. The FCC and the Federal Aviation Administration are still weighing whether to permit them to be used that way. The FCC in late 2004 gave Verizon Airfone a nonrenewable five-year license to operate its current airborne service. After the auction is completed, the company would be limited to using 1 megahertz of the airwaves until the license expires. The agency set up scenarios for splitting the airwaves and will go with whichever receives the highest bids. The possibilities include two overlapping licenses for 3 Mhz of airwaves, or one 3 Mhz exclusive license and another 1 Mhz exclusive license. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list medianews@twiar.org To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
