FCC Offers To Complete NextWave Refunds

Communications Today, Nov 15, 2002

Companies with millions in bids for spectrum licenses tied up in the Federal Communications Commission's dispute with NextWave Telecom can get their money back by dismissing their claims to those licenses, the FCC decided Thursday. The commission previously refunded nearly $3 billion to winning bidders of licenses tied up in legal challenges by NextWave and by Urban Communicators PCS, but it retained an amount equal to 3 percent of the net winning bids for those licenses. After persistent lobbying to release those companies from their bids, the commission in September offered two proposals for allowing them to opt out of their auction bids. The companies with licenses tied up in the disputes must decide by 45 days from the release of Thursday's order whether they will relinquish their claims to the licenses and receive the refunds.

Urban Communicators' appeal is stalled in federal district court pending the Supreme Court's decision on the FCC's appeal of the lower court's ruling in NextWave's favor, which isn't expected until next summer.

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