December 7, 2006 Via Electronic Filing Marlene H. Dortch Secretary Federal Communications Commission 445 12th St., S.W. Washington, DC 20554 Re: Notice of Ex Parte Presentation in WT Docket No. 06-150, Service Rules for the 698-746, 747-762, and 777-792 MHz Bands Dear Ms. Dortch: On December 7, 2006, on behalf of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy, Charles Maresca, Director of Interagency Affairs; Eric Menge, Assistant Chief Counsel; and Bruce Lundegren, Assistant Chief Counsel met with the following officials of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC): Paul D’Ari, Deputy Chief for Spectrum Policy of the Spectrum & Competition Policy Division of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and Gary Michaels and Erik Salovaaral of the Auctions and Spectrum Access Division of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. Advocacy discussed the FCC’s initial regulatory flexibility analysis (IRFA) for its recent proposed rulemaking in the proceeding listed above. This letter summarizes the points Advocacy stated at the meeting. The FCC has made a significant effort to comply with the RFA in this rulemaking, and Advocacy commends that effort. The IRFA identifies projected compliance requirements and analyzes the impact on small business. The FCC discusses many alternatives available to the agency for the service rules in the 700 MHz Band, including licensing in smaller service areas. Advocacy believes the FCC should review the size of license areas contemplated by the proposed rule. At Advocacy’s roundtable on August 3, 2006 which discussed the FCC’s spectrum policies, participating small businesses identified the size of the license areas as the single greatest regulatory barrier to providing wireless services. In addition to encouraging small business participation, small license areas give more flexibility for tailoring wireless coverage, encourage more rapid build-out of licenses, encourage build-out in rural areas, and often receive higher bids “per pop” in the license area. For these reasons, the FCC should allocate a substantial portion of the 700 MHz spectrum using small licensing areas. Several commenters have presented endorsed licensing plans which would allocate more spectrum in smaller license areas while allocating other portions of the 700 MHz in large regional licenses. This combination approach was used with significant success in the FCC’s Advanced Wireless Services auction (Auction #66). The FCC should analyze the combination approach for allocating the 700 MHz Band, as well as other licensing plans, in its final regulatory flexibility analysis (FRFA) to see if they minimize regulatory impacts on small businesses. Please contact Charles Maresca at (202) 205-6949 or charles.maresca@sba.gov if you have any questions regarding this filing. Sincerely, /s/ ___________________ Thomas M. Sullivan Chief Counsel of Advocacy /s/ ___________________ Eric E. Menge Assistant Chief Counsel for Telecommunications Office of Advocacy U.S. Small Business Administration 409 Third St., S.W. Washington, DC 20416 cc: FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps FCC Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein FCC Commissioner Robert M. McDowell Steven D. Aitken, Acting Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs