Broadband Personal Communications Services

This Report and Order amends the Commission's broadband Personal Communications Services (``PCS'') rules. The Commission concludes that the present record is insufficient to support the race- based F block rules under the strict scrutiny standard of judicial review required by the Supreme Court's decision in Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena, or to support the gender-based rules under the intermediate scrutiny standard that currently applies to those rules. Taking account of the need to award the remaining broadband PCS licenses expeditiously and to promote the rapid deployment of new services to the public, as well as the statutory objective of disseminating licenses among a wide variety of applicants, the Commission makes the F block rules race- and gender-neutral to avoid the delay that would likely result from legal challenges to the special provisions for minority- and women-owned businesses. The Commission also amends its D, E, and F block rules and broadband PCS rules generally to streamline procedures, reduce administrative burdens, and minimize the possibility of insincere bidding and bidder default. Finally, the Commission, in response to Cincinnati Bell Telephone Co. v. FCC, eliminates the cellular/PCS cross-ownership rule and the PCS spectrum cap in favor of the 45 MHz cap on Commercial Mobile Radio Services spectrum.