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 CONCURRING  STATEMENT  OF  COMMISSIONER  JONATHAN  S.  ADELSTEIN 
 Re:  Auction  Of  Advanced  Wireless  Services  Licenses  Rescheduled  For  August  9,  2006;  Revised  Schedule,  Filing  Requirements  And  Supplemental  Procedures  For  Auction  No. 
 66;  AU  Docket  No.  06-  30 
 It  is  disappointing  that  the  Commission  has  allowed  the  designated  entity  (DE)  proceeding  to  affect  the  timing  of  the  upcoming  Advanced  Wireless  Services  (AWS)  auction.  I 
 concur  in  this  item  because  I  am  told  that  a  delay  in  the  auction  is  necessary  to  allow  parties  more  time  to  make  necessary  preparations  in  response  to  the  Commission’s  April  25,  2006, 
 decision  adopting  various  changes  to  the  DE  rules  –  a  decision  from  which  I  largely  dissented.  Needless  to  say,  this  is  not  the  outcome  I  hoped  for  when  I  first  advocated  a  single,  simple, 
 change  to  the  DE  rules  more  than  nine  months  ago. 
 I  am  disappointed  that  we  are  in  this  position  because  I  made  every  effort  to  conclude  the  DE  proceeding  well  in  advance  of  our  June  29,  2006,  auction  date,  a  date  to  which  I  had 
 steadfastly  been  committed.  I  had  tried  to  move  this  proceeding  forward  since  August  of  last  year  when  the  Commission  first  committed  to  consider  a  change  to  the  rules  to  restrict  the  ability 
 of  DEs  who  have  a  material  relationship  with  the  nation’s  largest  wireless  carriers  from  having  access  to  bidding  credits  in  future  auctions.  We  could  have  and  should  have  been  done  with  the 
 DE  proceeding  months  ago.  In  previous  statements,  I  even  expressed  my  concern  with  the  effect  of  the  delay  on  both  interested  parties  and  our  own  Commission  staff  in  trying  to  conclude  an 
 unnecessarily  expansive  review  of  the  DE  program  sufficiently  in  advance  of  the  June  29  AWS  auction  date.  But  as  I  have  said  before,  this  timing  has  not  been  of  my  choosing. 


 And,  ultimately,  the  simple,  and  well  supported,  change  to  our  rules  to  close  the  loophole  in  our  rules  that  allows  large  wireless  companies  to  invest  in  DEs  was  never  adopted.  We  missed 
 a  real  opportunity  to  shut  down  what  almost  everyone  recognizes  has  the  potential  for  the  largest  abuse  of  our  DE  program.  And  now  it  appears  that  the  changes  that  the  Commission  did  adopt 
 may  actually  do  more  harm  than  good  to  the  DE  participation  in  the  upcoming  auction,  notwithstanding  this  last-  ditch  effort  to  cure  this  troubled  proceeding. 
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