FCC Asks Court to Dismiss FiberTower Appeal

The FCC urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to dismiss FiberTower's appeal of a commission decision that it didn’t demonstrate substantial service for its 24 GHz digital electronic message service licenses. The commission rejected FiberTower’s argument that a licensee that provides no service can satisfy the agency’s requirement that it provide substantial service. “This argument finds no support in the statute or the commission’s orders and rules,” the FCC said in a court brief. The FCC correctly found that FiberTower hadn’t demonstrated substantial service for each of the 689 licenses at issue here, it said. FiberTower failed to demonstrate that the FCC applied its waiver and extension policies inconsistently, it said. The agency issued the decision in 2012 (see 1211080055). An oral argument is scheduled for Jan. 20, the brief said.