Therefore, Congress directs the Commission to provide incentives that would promote opportunities among small businesses. The Commission has borne Congress's will in mind in developing designated entity provisions in past spectrum auctions. In applying such provisions to future auctions relating to unserved tribal lands, the Commission should consider an applicant's business size, as well as its commitment to providing service to unserved areas. The Commission should help assure that small businesses can compete in spectrum auctions on a level field, so they are in a position to compete in the marketplace. The Commission' s regulatory flexibility analysis fails to discuss adequately the impact that its designated entity proposals would have on small business, and fails to propose any alternatives that would minimize this impact while promoting the goal of bringing basic telephony to unserved areas.
Small business is an innovative force in the American economy.
Therefore, the Commission should not simply hand dominance of these niche markets to big business. The Commission's rules should encourage any interested carrier, large or small, to serve rural communities that lack basic telephony, without disadvantaging small business. Congress recognizes that small businesses, minorities, and women-owned businesses do not have ready access to capital nor the resources to acquire telecommunications licenses despite being competent to provide quality services. Therefore, Congress directs the Commission to consider special incentives to promote economic opportunities for these designated entities that would compensate for capital access problems. Since large business generally has greater resources than small business, Advocacy understands the Commission to mean by this statement that small business, in the Commission's view, essentially cannot provide these services.