Doyon, the Fairbanks and Interior Alaska Native Regional Corporation, was in federal court in Washington D.C. today, trying to keep the discount it was to get almost two years ago, when it bid billions of dollars on spectrum, a portion of the public airwaves reserved for wireless broadband. The discount is worth nearly $2 billion.
After the auction concluded in January 2015, the Federal Communications Commission ruled that Doyon’s company, Northstar, wasn’t entitled to the 25 percent discount intended for very small businesses.
“They changed the rules after the fact, and that’s what we were arguing against today,” said Sarah Obed, Doyon’s vice president of external affairs, outside the courthouse.
Doyon, Alaska’s largest private landowner, wouldn’t seem to be a “very small business” but the late Sen. Ted Stevens helped create the spectrum auction, and thanks to him there’s an exception that allows Alaska Native Corporations to qualify as small. The FCC, though, takes issue with Doyon’s heavyweight partner: Dish Network. Dish owns an 85 percent stake in Northstar. Doyon owns a portion of the remaining 15 percent, and Sarah Obed says Doyon is running the show.
“Dish Network does not manage Northstar Wireless. We do. And so that’s something we’re really proud of,” she said.
The FCC says Dish is more than a passive partner because, among other things, it loaned Northstar most of the nearly $6 billion it bid in the auction. Dish has contracts to build and operate the network. And, according to their business agreement, Northstar and Doyon can’t transfer their rights or raise capital elsewhere without Dish’s consent.
“To be frank, I’m appalled that a corporate giant has attempted to use small business discounts to rip off American taxpayers,” FCC commissioner Ajit Pai said of the Dish-Doyon deal at a Senate hearing last year.
Today’s case was heard by a three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
