Federal Communications Commission FCC 08-257
JOINT STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONERS MICHAEL J. COPPS AND JONATHAN S. ADELSTEIN
APPROVING IN PART AND CONCURRING IN PART
Re: Union Telephone Company, Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless Applications for 700 MHz 
Band Licenses, Auction No. 73, File Nos. 0003371176, et al.
Until today, the Commission applied its spectrum screen to licenses obtained via merger or 
acquisition, but not to licenses acquired via auction.  As we have stated before, this double standard 
makes no sense.  Accordingly, we are pleased that today’s item announces that, from now on, the 
Commission will apply its spectrum screen to both forms of spectrum acquisition.  
We do limit ourselves to concurrence in the second portion of today’s item, which declines to 
provide clarification about the openness conditions that apply to the C-Block in our recent 700 MHz 
auction.  When we voted to establish service rules for that spectrum, we both expected that the C-Block 
winner would observe the openness rules for its own devices as well as those sold by third parties.  And 
we believe today that the language in the Commission’s rules establishes this legal requirement.  
However, to the extent that any parties believe the language is not clear enough, we would have preferred 
that the Commission dispel any potential confusion by making this point directly in today’s item.