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To: brian h who wrote (23145)	2/20/1999 5:29:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 152472

Auction, GSM> From the February 22, 1999 issue of Wireless Week GSM Players To Get Shot At More Licenses By Edward Warner WASHINGTON--A bankruptcy judge's decision this week could send a dozen more licenses into the FCC's March 23 personal communications services auction. The properties may become available through a daring gamble by the four chief creditors of C-Block licensee Pocket Communications Inc. They've asked the judge presiding in Pocket's Chapter 11 bankruptcy to invalidate Pocket's decision to retain and sell the 12 licenses, rather than return them to the commission for auctioning. The 15-megahertz licenses are for markets such as New Orleans and Las Vegas, cities that don't yet have a global system for mobile communications-based carrier. Since 15-megahertz licenses already are on the block for each of the dozen cities, bidders will have a shot at 30 megahertz in these markets, which include Toledo, Ohio, and several small cities in Michigan. The creditors include Siemens and Ericsson Inc., companies with a big stake in the U.S. success of GSM. Sources say they want the licenses back in play in the hopes that Omnipoint Communications Inc. or another GSM carrier will win them in the auction. As part of their plan, the creditors offered Pocket's unsecured creditors $600,000 to settle their claims, although at deep discounts. Of this, more than $250,000 will go to Pocket Chairman and CEO Dan Riker and his wifetwo of Pocket's three foundersto cover administrative expenses. In return, the creditors want the exclusive right to any compensation arising from their pending lawsuit against the FCC. The lawsuit charges the commission with fraudulent conveyance, or having misrepresented the licenses' value. It cites the months of delay between when the commission issued others their licenses and when it issued them to Pocket. By then, Pocket claims all potential financing was gone. A similar claim in the bankruptcy of a Dallas PCS carrier led a judge to re-price the carrier's licenses at 20 percent of the bid price. But in Pocket's case, the creditors want the judge to throw out Pocket's auction purchase entirely, resulting in the refund of the creditors' $143 million down payment, Riker said. He added that he thinks the judge is inclined to approve the plan when he rules Feb. 24. Pocket's longtime nemesis Jack Robinson agrees. A bankruptcy lawyer who has attended several of Pocket's court hearings, Robinson said with some wistfulness that "the Pocket case is over." Robinson shifted his focus from pursuing Pocket to chasing the 12 licenses. If they go to auction, he's asked the FCC to warn the license winners that he has a potential right to those properties, depending on the outcome of his $1 billion lawsuit against Pocket. Riker is only watching from the sidelines, displaced by the creditors and their all-or-nothing play. If the judge rejects the plan, he said he has a buyer in the wings. He won't discuss the potential deal other than to say it involves all 12 licenses and a $5 million-plus price.