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D Block Spectrum Auction Fraud Alleged
eweekhickins writes "A public interest group is saying that a consulting firm hired to help the government hand over the D-block spectrum may have acted improperly and discouraged potential bidders by suggesting that any winning bid would have to pay $50 million in annual fees, in addition to the auction price. Any wonder the D-block didn't meet the reserve price?"
Could it be that the contract signed with the Government had a clause for getting a percentage of the sales/lease price?
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
It figures something like this would happen, a seemingly sensible move by the government just turns out to be another big block of crap. In my mind there's absolutely no question that something unethical went down. It seems funny that when you're bidding D-Block and there are two or three frontrunners picked and almost a *definite* surefire contender, and the suddenly no one meets the reserve. Its quite simply a disgrace and a big block eye for all involved -- discouraged bids, no contract bids, what will they think of next?!
It's true that those requirements are rather steep, but keep in mind that the D block is an auction for a special piece of the spectrum-- it is going to be used not just for the private sector, but also for public safety. With that in mind, the requirements don't seem as bad. Also, since this will be a public-private partnership, with public safety presumably as a captive customer, there's some reason to think that the D block would be a solid money-maker, and that private services offered on top of the public ones would come "for free", since building infrastructure for the public services would also serve the private. Ten years for 99% penetration does light a fire under the winning bidder's ass, but then again, the taxpayer will probably be paying for this in the long run, so in that context, ten years doesn't sound so bad to me...