FiberTower sues FCC to prevent termination of its spectrum licenses

By Jim Witters

Wilmington, Del., Aug. 23 - FiberTower Corp. has filed for injunctive and declaratory relief to prevent the U.S. Federal Communications Commission from terminating the company's spectrum licenses, according to documents filed Aug. 23 with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Specifically, FiberTower is asking the court to determine that the automatic stay of legal proceedings against companies in bankruptcy applies to the licenses, that any exception to the stay does not apply to the licenses and the FCC cannot terminate the licenses before "pending exhaustion of all avenues of review" of FCC actions.

A previous extension of FiberTower's deadline for meeting certain FCC requirements expired on June 1, and the company is seeking a waiver of those requirements or an additional three-year extension.

FiberTower provides hybrid fixed wireless fiber-optic service to about 5,390 customer locations at approximately 3,188 sites in 13 U.S. markets.

The company also holds separate national-scope service agreements with Verizon Business and CenturyLink, which allow them to provide government grade transport services to the U.S. General Services Administration and other governmental entities.

Further, the debtors use their FCC spectrum licenses to offer critical fixed wireless services directly to federal and local government agencies and mobile carriers who directly serve federal, state and local government officials, as well as other key public safety personnel employed by hospitals, utilities and other essential facilities, the filings state.

"One of the debtors' most significant assets is their ownership of a national spectrum portfolio of 24 GHz and 39 GHz wide-area spectrum licenses," the documents state.

"The debtors believe that the spectrum portfolio represents one of the largest and most comprehensive aggregations of millimeter wave spectrum in the U.S., covering areas with a total population of over 300 million," according to documents.

FCC termination of the licenses will mean FiberTower "will not be able to reorganize their business as contemplated and they very likely will be forced to liquidate and cease all business operations. Indeed, the debtors' entitlement to use cash collateral will terminate if the licenses are canceled," the filing states.

No hearing in the adversary proceeding has been scheduled.

San Francisco-based FiberTower is a backhaul and access services provider focused primarily on the wireless carrier market. The Chapter 11 case number is 12-44027.

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