Since they have not put out anything on why they are 85 Days past the 180 Day Shot Clock, that in itself to me is very telling.
They have a mess on their hands.
Ultimate goal is to get this spectrum in the hands of AT&T, have AT&T and VZ off and running with 5G Buildouts, and have many jobs and economic growth as a result of.
But you have the FCC which had numerous flaws with their termination of Fibertower's spectrum and as a result of those flaws Fibertower was able to get the courts to place the spectrum in remand. As a result of the FCC's actions Fibertower goes into Chapter 11.
And in the meantime you have StraightPath who committed fraud who didn't do anything with their spectrum but claimed to and the FCC had no checks and balances and allowed them to skate off with billions in a windfall and a minor penalty. And the FCC based much of their termination argument on StraightPath's fraud saying Fibertower didn't do enough but look at what StraightPath did providing all that service. Fibertower spent $300M+ in Capital on Wireless Networks and Development of Products delivering services in 13 Major Metro Markets while Straightpath....I don't think they spent even a million on equipment.
And then you have the actual Fibertower Chapter 11 case which I believe as a result of the petitioners has the FCC's eyes wide open as another major layer in the mess they are looking at and are a big part off. Levy and Fahy couldn't have served it up much better than what they did. And then their follow up replies to the Joint Opposition were even more solid. Not sure if they would have had it under consideration wihtout the petitions but they sure do now.
So back to the Ultimate Goal. How does the FCC unwind, repackage, serve all of this up in a fashion so they don't look anywhere near as bad as we know they do and that Michael Lewis doesn't write a book based on this and have a movie as well? They have to be figuring out a way to get this spectrum in AT&T's hands and minimize any potential blowback on their operations or lack of operations and checks and balances.
That is what I am assuming is causing the delay and their lack of explanation for the delay. You can't serve up licenses on a silver platter (XO/STRP) for Verizon and then cut the legs out from under AT&T if you want proliferation of 5G and the benefits. These 2 players represent 60-65% of the total wireless market and are a close #1 and #2.
AI
