Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 9, 1994 TAG: 9411090075
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short
After two weeks of bidding, the Federal Communications Commission auctioned off six licenses in each of five regions. In July, the FCC received bids totalling $617 million for 10 nationwide paging licenses.
Nine groups of bidders won the regional licenses, including four that are firms owned by women or minorities.
The results helped to meet a goal of the FCC and Congress to increase ownership of communications licenses by women and minorities. Small businesses, women and minorities were given discounts on bidding and the option of making installment payments for their licenses.
PageMart Inc. and PCS Development Corp. were big winners in the auction, each offering to pay more than $90 million for five regional licenses, enough to gain nationwide coverage. PCS Development is a minority-owned consortium that includes Arch Communications Corp., A+ Communications and USA Mobile Communications Inc.
``It went a little higher than we expected it to go and took a little longer,'' said Maceo K. Sloan, chairman of PCS Development. ``We think it was worth it.''
Sloan said it would take another $300 million to $500 million to build the nationwide paging network.
American Paging Inc., MobileMedia Corp., AirTouch Communications, Benbow PCS Ventures and individual investor Lisa-Gaye Shearing also captured several licenses each. Ameritech Corp. and Insta-Check Systems Inc. won a single license.
by CNB