The FCC has been sued over the AWS auction by the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council and two would-be designated entrants.

The FCC in April tightened its rules to try and prevent larger telecommunications companies from using smaller, often rural ones one by women and minorities, as front companies to secure the bidding credits given to such desginated entrants, or DE's.

Those changes included extending the length of time that a winning bidder has to own the company before selling it, and reducing the percentage of the spectrum that can be leased.

MMTC says the changes were last-minute--the FCC did move the auction from June to August--and could do irrreparable harm to smaller companies by denying them the "flexibility" to lease or sell out.

The companies had asked the FCC to make some changes to discourage abuses of the credit by larger companies, but suggested the FCC's changes were too draconian and would "effectively deprive DE's of their bidding credis if they lease or resell even so much as 25% of their spectrum capacity. They also took issue with double the "hold" period--how long they have to hold the specrum before selling out, from 5 to 10 years.

Some 1,200-plus licenses, recalimed from government use, are up for grabs, enough to build a national network.

M2Z, a company funded by venture capitalists, hopes to launch a free nationwide broadband wireless network. They want to use the simplex part of the AWS spectrum (from 2155Mhz to 2175 Mhz).

M2Z argues the 20 MHz of bandwidth would lay fallow for years since they're not paired with other airwaves. M2Z, which stands for "Move the cost of data transport to Zero," has filed a 127-page proposal (PDF). It could also dovetail nicely with MVP's satellite/cellular repeaters and Modeo's DVB-H mobile television, which also use the 1.7GHz band. Triple play.

Rupert Murdock, Cingular, Sprint and Verizon are not big fans of "free" nationwide broadband wireless.

If M2Z's proposal solves the Universal Service Fund dilema, as they claim, and provides a cost/effective "digital divide" solution, it may put the Republican-controlled FCC in a difficult position.

Read more at: http://dailywireless.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5525&src=rss10.