Subject: [NEXTEL-1] NTCA Members Face Wireless Facts

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2002 18:38:00 -0500

NTCA Members Face Wireless Facts

Most National Telecommunications Cooperative Association
(NTCA) members with wireless operations plan to bid in U.S.
spectrum license auctions, but the companies don't have a positive
outlook on competing with large wireless players in those auctions.
"We feel that obtaining access to spectrum is a major problem,"
Richard Schadelbauer, economist for the trade group representing
small and rural telecom operators, said during the NTCA's release of
its annual wireless survey results. Wireless companies participating
in the survey show a "preceived inability to compete with large
companies at auction and also an inability to afford spectrum won
at auction," Schadelbauer said.

But the NTCA expects its lobbying efforts to next year help push
through federal legislation giving small companies better
opportunities to compete, said Shirley Bloomfield, the Arlington,
Va.-based group's vice president for government affairs. Sens. Max
Baucus (D-Mt.) and Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) are particularly
sensitive to rural telecom operators' interests, Bloomfield added. "I
think that spectrum is going to be fairly hot item on the agenda,"
she said.

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