PUBLIC NOTICE
               FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
               1919 M STREET N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20554
     
     News media information 202/418-0500  Recorded listing of releases and texts 202/418-2222.

                                                  January 22, 1996

                QUALIFIED BIDDERS FOR DBS AUCTION
                   TO BE HELD JANUARY 24, 1996 

     This Public Notice identifies applicants that have been found qualified to bid in the auction of two Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) construction permits -- for use of channels at the 110 W.L. orbital location and the 148 W.L. orbital location -- which will be held on January 24, 1996.  This Notice also sets forth other important information regarding the auction.

     Qualified bidders.  Attachment A (1) lists each entity that has filed a timely short-form application (FCC Form 175) to participate in the auction of the construction permit for use of 28 channels at the 110 orbital location that has been accepted for filing, and has timely submitted the upfront payment to qualify it to bid on this permit.  Attachment A (2) lists each entity that has filed a timely short-form application to participate in the auction of the construction permit for use of 24 channels at the 148 orbital location that has been accepted for filing, and has timely submitted the required upfront payment.  This attachment also identifies applicants that have been found unqualified to participate in the auction.

     Public inspection of applications.  Applicants' FCC Form 175 applications are available for public inspection.  Copies of these applications are available for review in the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Public Reference Room, 2025 M Street, NW, Room 5608, during Commission business hours.  Those wishing to review these applications electronically may use the FCC Form 175 review software to review, print, or download the applications. The FCC Form 175 Review program requires the use of a 900 number telephone service at a cost of $2.30 per minute.  Detailed instructions for accessing FCC Form 175 applications electronically are available in the Public Notice released by the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau on December 21, 1995 announcing the DBS auction (see attachment "Hardware and Software Requirements and Instructions for Installing Electronic Filing Software").  This remote access system is available on a 24-hour basis; however, access may be denied during certain periods due to internal maintenance.  

     Parties who access FCC Form 175 applications electronically should note that applications to bid for the 110 permit and the 148 permit will appear separately in the remote access system.  To review applications for the 110 permit, interested parties must access "Auction 8" applications.  To review applications for the 148 permit, interested parties must access "Auction 9" applications.    


     Monitoring DBS Auction On-Line.  Interested parties may monitor the DBS auction on-line via the FCC Wide Area Network (at a cost of $2.30 per minute), the Internet or the FCC Bulletin Board System. Detailed instructions for monitoring the auction on-line are contained in Attachment B to this Public Notice.

     Registration.  Qualified bidders will be registered for the auction on Tuesday, January 23, 1996, from 12:00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m at the FCC Auction Site (2 Massachusetts Avenue, N.E., Washington, D.C.).  At the end of the registration process, each bidder should be in possession of the following information:

         FCC account number (self-assigned on the FCC Form 175, and listed on            Attachment A)
         Bidder identification number (supplied by FCC at registration)
         Login name (supplied by FCC at registration)
         Login password (supplied by FCC at registration)

     Qualified bidders may practice using the bidding software during registration. Detailed instructions will be provided at registration. Lost login names, login passwords and bidder identification numbers can be replaced only at the FCC Auction Headquarters, located at 2 Massachusetts Avenue, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002.  If a replacement is necessary, either an authorized representative or the certifying official (as designated on the applicant's FCC Form 175) must appear in person with two forms of identification, one of which must be a photo identification.

     Bidding schedule and procedures.  The auction will open at 9:00 a.m., January 24, 1996.  The first round of bidding for the 110  permit will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.  All announcements made at the FCC Auction Site during the auction are the equivalent of FCC-released Public Notices. In order to participate effectively in the auction, qualified bidders should re-familiarize themselves with the auction rules and procedures contained in the Public Notice released by the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau on December 21, 1995.  


News Media contact:      Kara Palamaras at (202) 418-0654 or Frances Downey at (202) 418-0663.
FCC Auctions contact:    Jay Markley at (202) 418-0600 or Diane Conley at (202) 418-0660.


- FCC -Attachment A

                                 (1)
FCC Direct Broadcast Satellite Auction
Auction ID: 8
Auction of Channels at 110 W.L. Orbital Location

The following Applicants are 'Qualified':

FCC Account Number       Name
0841328967                    EchoStar DBS Corporation
0132745892                    MCI Telecommunications Corporation
0841286883                    TCI Technology Ventures, Inc.


The following Applicants are 'Non-Qualified':

FCC Account Number       Name
0133790137                    NYNET, Inc.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(2)
FCC Direct Broadcast Satellite Auction
Auction ID: 9
Auction of Channels at 148 W.L. Orbital Location

The following Applicants are 'Qualified':

FCC Account Number       Name
0841328967                    EchoStar DBS Corporation
0132745892                    MCI Telecommunications Corporation


The following Applicants are 'Non-Qualified':

FCC Account Number       Name
0133790137                    NYNET, Inc.
2027850505                    Satellite Business News Inc.


                             - FCC -                                                                                                
HOW TO MONITOR THE FCC AUCTIONS 
                             ON-LINE     The auction announcements and round results for the FCC Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) Auction will be accessible through the FCC Wide Area Network,  the Internet and the FCC Auction Bulletin Board System (BBS).  You can check on round results and also read any material released by the Commission during the course of the auction.  This fact sheet provides the information that you need to track the auction that begins on Wednesday, January 24th from your computer. 

Option 1.

FCC Wide Area Network: The FCC recently implemented a remote access system capable of allowing 500 concurrent users to dial in directly to the FCC to view round results, auction announcements and messages and to make suggestions to the FCC regarding the FCC auction process.  The FCC will make the software available free-of-charge through the Internet and the Auction BBS.  Please note that the separately acquired PPP communications software required with earlier versions of our software is no longer needed.  The PPP communications software has been included with our application.  Installation and access instructions are included in the README.TXT associated with the application.    

The software will be located in the following directory:  /pub/Auctions/DBS/VIEWER of the FCC ftp server.  The application is in a self-extracting compressed file.  The file name is VIEWER2.EXE.  The installation instructions for this application are located in VIEWER2.TXT located in the same directory.  The file can also be downloaded from the BBS under D for DBS and P for Programs and Applications.  For additional information contact the FCC Technical Support Hotline at (202) 414-1250.   

Recently, the Commission established a fee schedule for on-line access to the Commission's wide area network.  A charge of $2.30 per minute will be applied to a user's telephone bill when this software is used for the FCC Auction Remote Access System (this includes Auction Announcements, Messages, Suggestion Box, and Round Results Viewer).

Option 2. 

Internet Access:  In order to access the FCC ftp server, you will need to have access to the Internet and an ftp client software.  The following are instructions for the command line version of ftp.  Graphical ftp interfaces may slightly differ; please check with your local computer specialist.

FTP: The following instructions are for the command line version of ftp.

1.   Connect to the FCC ftp server by typing: ftp ftp.fcc.gov

2.   At the user name prompt, type anonymous [Enter]

3.   At the password prompt, type your Internet e-mail address [Enter]

4.   To allow the file to be downloaded type:  binary [Enter]

5.   Change your current directory to the DBS directory by typing:
     cd /pub/Auctions/DBS/Results [Enter]

6.   Use the get command to download files from the FCC ftp server.  For example, to get all bid submissions for round 10 in DBF format, type: get 8_010S.DBF [Enter]  -for Auct. 8
                                       9_010S.DBF [Enter]  -for Auct. 9 

7.   If you wish to exit, type bye [Enter]

Gopher: gopher.ftp.fcc.gov or use any gopher to get to "all the gophers in the world" then  U.S.' then  DC' then  FCC'.

World Wide Web: ftp://ftp.fcc.gov

You can access the files through service providers such as America Online or Delphi.  The files will be presented on the ftp.fcc.gov ftp Internet server.  Go to this location and look for the files.

Option 3. 

Bulletin Board System (BBS): To access auction round results through the BBS, you need a personal computer, a standard Hayes compatible modem and a communications program, like pcANYWHERE, TELIX, PROCOMM, etc.  Next, dial (202) 682-5851, use the setting of No parity, 8 data bits and 1 stop bit (N,8,1).

    For new users follow steps 1-6, otherwise go to step 7:   

     1.   Type New, [Enter].  If the word ANSI is blinking, type Y for yes.  If the word ANSI is not blinking, type N for No

     2.   Type in your first and last name and press [Enter].  This will be your login name

     3.   Type in your Telephone number and press [Enter]  

     4.   Type in your Fax number and press [Enter]

     5.   Type in what you want your password to be and press [Enter] 

     6.   Retype the password for verification and press [Enter] 

    Once the account is generated:

     7.   Type D for DBS Auction and press [Enter]

     8.   Type R for Round Results or A for Auction Announcements and press [Enter]

     9.   Type the letter representing the file that you want to download, and press [Enter]

     10.  Press D for download and press [Enter].

     11.  Type the letter representing the transfer protocol you want to use, and press [Enter]. How the file is downloaded and where it gets downloaded depends on the package being used.

     12.  Repeat steps 10 through 12 to download another file, or press x and [Enter] to exit the screen.
 
    To Exit:  

     13.  Type X to Exit and press [Enter] and answer Y for Yes when asked to verify you are exiting.

Round Results File Formats

 For each round, dBase-compatible database files will be uploaded with the following naming conventions:

8_xxxS.DBF [contains all bids submitted in a particular round]
8_xxxW.DBF [contains all bids withdrawn in a particular round]**
8_xxxM.DBF [contains the minimum bid increments for the next round]
8_xxxE.DBF [contains the maximum eligibility and remaining # of waivers for each bidder]
8_xxxX.DBF [contains the high bids before withdrawal in a particular round]
8_xxxY.DBF [contains the high bids after withdrawal in a particular round]**
or
9_xxxS.DBF [contains all bids submitted in a particular round]
9_xxxW.DBF [contains all bids withdrawn in a particular round]**
9_xxxM.DBF [contains the minimum bid increments for the next round]
9_xxxE.DBF [contains the maximum eligibility and remaining # of waivers for each bidder]
9_xxxX.DBF [contains the high bids before withdrawal in a particular round]
9_xxxY.DBF [contains the high bids after withdrawal in a particular round]**
where xxx represents the round number.

For those that cannot use the dBase-compatible database files, we will also upload the ASCII text version of these files with the following naming conventions:

8_xxxS.TXT [contains all bids submitted in a particular round]
8_xxxW.TXT [contains all bids withdrawn in a particular round]**
8_xxxM.TXT [contains the minimum bid increments for the next round]
8_xxxE.TXT [contains the maximum eligibility and remaining # of waivers for each bidder]
8_xxxX.TXT [contains the high bids before withdrawal in a particular round]
8_xxxY.TXT [contains the high bids after withdrawal in a particular round]**
or
9_xxxS.TXT [contains all bids submitted in a particular round]
9_xxxW.TXT [contains all bids withdrawn in a particular round]**
9_xxxM.TXT [contains the minimum bid increments for the next round]
9_xxxE.TXT [contains the maximum eligibility and remaining # of waivers for each bidder]
9_xxxX.TXT [contains the high bids before withdrawal in a particular round]
9_xxxY.TXT [contains the high bids after withdrawal in a particular round]**

where xxx represents the round number.

The following file will be uploaded at the beginning of the auction to map the bidder number to the FCC Account Number and company name:

8_XREF.DBF [contains the bidder name, FCC account number and bidder number]
9_XREF.DBF [contains the bidder name, FCC account number and bidder number]
or
8_XREF.TXT [Same file in text format]
9_XREF.TXT [Same file in text format]

This file is used to identify which bidder is associated with each bid in the submission, withdrawal and bidder eligibility files.

** These files will only be uploaded if a withdrawal is made at the end of the auction.