NetFreeUS Files FOIA Seeking Release of M2Z Financial Data

NetFreeUS asked the FCC to make public financial information filed by M2Z, a rival contender to build a broadband wireless network in the 2.1 GHz band. NetFree filed a FOIA request at the FCC seeking financial data it says M2Z acknowledged providing in a statement “buried in footnotes” in a filing at the agency. NetFree, which is backed by publicly traded Speedus Corp., also countered arguments M2Z has made asking that its application be thrown out.

NetFree accused M2Z of operating in secrecy, quietly seeking confidential treatment for its “reasonable assurances” that it will have the financial ability to “help construct and operate its network” in a March 26 filing. “A copy of the confidentiality request was not served on NetfreeUS and it has not been posted on the Commission’s Electronic Comment Filing System, depriving NetfreeUS and the public with an opportunity to determine whether the financial information is entitled to confidentiality under Commission standards,” NetFree said. “The Commission will benefit substantially by enabling NetfreeUS and other parties in this proceeding to review and comment upon the information submitted in the confidentiality request. Moreover, fundamental fairness requires that NetfreeUS and other interested parties be afforded the opportunity to review and comment on the ‘reasonable assurances’ that M2Z purports to offer.”

M2Z CEO John Muleta told us Wed. the company is closely held and has confidentiality agreements with some investors. “We have sought cover of confidentiality to respect agreements we have with other parties,” he said: “We've tried to provide the Commission with a complete record… There’s nothing nefarious about it.”

M2Z and NetFree both are contending for the 2155-2175 MHz band. M2Z wants to build a free, nationwide network, supported in part through a premium service for which customers would have to pay. M2Z asks for 15-year licenses and promises to provide coverage to 95% of the American population within 10 years. NetFree proposes to offer its network through 3rd-party lessees - franchisees who would own and operate wireless access points and make a profit through advertising. Speedus CEO Shant Hovnanian compares the proposal to licenses provided to broadcasters decades ago to offer radio and TV.

NetFree also fired back at M2Z, which has asked the FCC to terminate other proposals for the band, likening other contenders to “follow-on prospectors and speculators who, with wild-eyed dreams of the mother-lode, can offer nothing at present but fool’s gold.”

“Despite claiming that it welcomes a public debate on the merits of its proposal, M2Z’s consolidated motion clearly prefers immediate foreclosure of such debate by requesting that the Commission dismiss competing approaches before they have been fully considered by the Commission,” NetFree said: “While the consolidated motion is a marvel of pejorative rhetoric, self-aggrandizement and facile analysis, the consolidated notion fails to provide any basis for the Commission to dismiss the NetfreeUS application.”

NetFree also said the FCC should reject M2Z arguments that other applications should be dismissed unless they meet “all of the public interest standards set” by the M2Z application. “The fallacy in this argument is the presumption that the M2Z application sets the standard for the obligation,” the company said: “NetfreeUS’s obligation is not to show that M2Z’s application is inconsistent with the public interest but merely to show that the public interest favors NetfreeUS’s proposal over M2Z’s proposal.”