168 bidders qualify in FCC auction
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BRUCE MEYERSON

Associated Press

NEW YORK - The Federal Communications Commission on
Friday issued a list of 168 bidders that have qualified
to participate in an upcoming auction of wireless licenses
that is expected to raise billions of dollars for the
government while ushering in more next-generation services.

The auction of 1,122 licenses, slated to begin on Aug. 9,
covers slices of the airwaves that are currently used by
the federal government. The FCC also issued a list of more
than 80 would-be participants whose applications were rejected.

The qualified bidders include T-Mobile USA, a unit of
Deutsche Telekom AG that badly needs more spectrum so it
can introduce the speedier Internet connections that its
main cellular rivals already offer. Two of those competitors,
Cingular Wireless and Verizon Wireless also were on the list
of qualified bidders even though both already have much more
spectrum than T-Mobile.

Also qualified to bid was Lynch AWS Corp., an entity led by
money manager Mario Gabelli, who earlier this month reached
a settlement of charges that he had defrauded the government
in wireless auctions between 1995 and 2000. Gabelli and his
affiliated companies agreed to pay $130 million to settle a
civil-fraud suit.