FCC Rejects Dish DE Bidding Credits for AWS-3 Auction

SNR Wireless and Northstar Wireless remain under de facto Dish Network control and thus aren't eligible for $3.3 billion in designated entity bidding credits they sought for licenses they won in the AWS-3 auction, the full FCC said in an order Monday. This arose from issues remanded from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2017 after it upheld FCC denial of the auction bidding credits but gave the DEs a chance to negotiate a solution to the Dish control.

However, SNR and Northstar don't owe the FCC that $3.3 billion, having defaulted on 197 licenses and paid full price for the remaining spectrum they won in the 2015 auction, the order said. Dish and outside counsel for SNR and Northstar didn't immediately comment.

While agreeing with the decision's outcome, Commissioner Mike O'Rielly dissented in part as a criticism of what he called "the extremely flawed process [that] inexplicably been mishandled and dragged out for over five years." Concurring, Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said the Dish/SNR/Northstar agreements fell short of de facto control rules, but he still supports the DE program and its aims of "creat[ing] economic opportunities so that our country’s wireless spectrum isn’t strictly controlled by a few large carriers. We must do better."

Fellow Democratic minority Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel concurred, with no statement. Her office didn't immediately provide an explanation.