FCC May Ease Payments for PCS Licensing

The Federal Communications Commission has announced that it is considering a number of options to help cash-strapped companies struggling to pay the government more than $10 billion for wireless phone licenses. The options would ease payments for dozens of small companies for airwave licenses sold at two recent FCC auctions. Congress and the White House are counting on the proceeds to reduce the deficit, but financial problems plaguing several top bidders have threatened the companies’ ability to pay. The agency’s wireless bureau said it will seek public comment on ways to restructure the payment terms for the licenses to offer a new generation of cellular phone service known as personal communications services, or PCS. A Wall Street executive predicted the move would amount to “a fairly sizable restructuring of the payments.�