Geographic Partitioning and Spectrum Disaggregation by Commercial Mobile Radio Services Licensees and the Implementation of the Communications Act-Elimination of Market Entry Barriers

This document dismisses the petitions filed by the National Telephone Cooperative Association (NTCA) and Omnipoint Corporation (Omnipoint) requesting reconsideration of a previous Commission decision that: eliminated the restriction permitting partitioning only to rural telephone companies; prohibited entrepreneur block licensees from swapping spectrum blocks with non-entrepreneur block licensees in the same geographic market; and required the filing of the associated contract for sale and related documents together with any partitioning and/or disaggregation application that is filed within the first three years following issuance of a new PCS license through competitive bidding. This document also dismisses as moot the Rural Telecommunications Group's Motion for Stay to stay the effective date of the new rules adopted in the same Commission decision. This action by the Commission eliminates market entry barriers, thereby increasing competition in the PCS marketplace while expeditiously speeding service to the public.