Groups Challenge FCC Wireless Auctions

Ten prominent national civil rights, public interest, and women and minority groups joined forces with six small wireless businesses, including minority-owned businesses (the "Amici Coalition"), to file an Amicus Curiae Brief last Friday, August 15, in a case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit that has profound implications for the future of diversity in the United States wireless communications industry. The Amici Coalition supports Council Tree Communications, Inc., Bethel Native Corporation and the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council in their court challenge to the rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission. The challenged rules make it difficult for small businesses, including minority- and women-owned businesses, commonly known as "Designated Entities" or "DEs," to bid and compete for spectrum.