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‘‘(C)(i) Upon the grant of a rural program license to
a qualified common carrier, such carrier shall pay a fee
(in lump sum or installment payments, in royalties on fu-
ture income, in a combination thereof, or on any other rea-
sonable basis specified by the Commission) equal to the
value of such license. The value of such license shall be the
average of the amounts paid by persons granted licenses
through competitive bidding to provide the same service in
such area, except that the Commission shall determine the
value of such license by any reasonable means when the geo-
graphic area served by the rural program license is not con-
gruent with the geographic area served by the other license
or licenses. The Commission shall ensure that the total
amount paid by qualified common carriers for all the li-
censes issued to them under the rural program shall equal
the total value, as determined under clause (ii), of such li-
censes.
‘‘(ii) The Commission shall determine the total value
of the licenses issued under the rural program to qualified
common carriers by first adding the amounts paid for the
licenses not subject to the rural program, and dividing that
sum by the number of licenses per market that are not sub-
ject to the rural program. The Commission shall then sub-
tract from the amount found in the previous calculation
the total amount paid for the licenses issued for the non-
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rural areas under bidding subject to the rural program and
the total amount paid for licenses issued pursuant to sub-
paragraph (D). The amount remaining shall be the total
value of all the licenses issued under the rural program to
qualified common carriers.
‘‘(D) If no qualified common carrier applies for a
rural program license in a particular market and the Com-
mission awards the non-rural program licenses through
competitive bidding, the rural program shall not apply for
that particular market and the Commission shall use com-
petitive bidding to award the licenses for the former rural
program areas, either separately or as part of larger license
areas.
‘‘(E) For purposes of this paragraph—
‘‘(i) the term ‘rural area’ means any geographic
area that does not include either—
‘‘(I) any incorporated place of 10,000 in-
habitants or more, or any part thereof; or
‘‘(II) any territory, incorporated or unin-
corporated, included in an urbanized area (as
defined by the Bureau of the Census as of the
date of enactment of the Emerging Telecommuni-
cations Technologies Act of 1993); and
‘‘(ii) the term ‘qualified common carrier’ means
a common carrier that—
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‘‘(I) either provides telephone exchange serv-
ice by wire in a rural area, provides telephone
exchange service by wire to less than 10,000 sub-
scribers, or is a telephone utility whose income
accrues to a State or political subdivision there-
of; and
‘‘(II) submits an application for a rural
program license that meets the standards estab-
lished by the Commission to determine ability to
provide the service covered by the license.
‘‘(F) The provisions of subparagraph (A)(ii) do not
limit the Commission’s discretion to determine, for licenses
issued other than under this paragraph, the size of any
market area or the number of licensees for any service.
‘‘(4) The competitive bidding authority provided to the
Commission in paragraph (1) shall not—
‘‘(A) because of the need to avoid excessive service
disruption, extend to license renewals and modifica-
tions;
‘‘(B) because of the essential services they pro-
vide, extend to licenses reserved for the United States
Government and State or local government entities;
‘‘(C) because of their public service obligations,
extend to licenses to provide amateur operator serv-
ices, over-the-air terrestrial radio and television
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broadcast services, public safety services, and radio
astronomy services;
‘‘(D) because they do not involve mutually exclu-
sive applications, extend to private radio end-user li-
censes, including Specialized Mobile Radio Service
(SMRS), 
maritime, 
and 
aeronautical 
end-user
licenses;
‘‘(E) because of the need to avoid excessive serv-
ice disruption, extend to any license grant to a non-
Federal licensee being moved from its current fre-
quency assignment to a different one by the Commis-
sion in order to make spectrum available for new
technologies; and
‘‘(F) extend to any other service, class of services,
or assignments that the Commission determines, after
conducting public notice and comment proceedings,
should be exempt from competitive bidding because of
public interest factors warranting an exemption to
the extent the Commission determines the use of com-
petitive bidding would jeopardize appropriate treat-
ment of those factors.
‘‘(5) No provision of this subsection or of the Emerging
Telecommunications Technologies Act of 1993 shall be con-
strued, in any way, to—
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‘‘(A) alter spectrum allocation criteria and pro-
cedures established by the other provisions of this Act;
‘‘(B) allow the Commission to consider potential
revenues from competitive bidding when making deci-
sions concerning spectrum allocation;
‘‘(C) diminish the authority of the Commission
under the other provisions of this Act to regulate or
reclaim spectrum licenses;
‘‘(D) grant any right to a spectrum licensee dif-
ferent from the rights awarded to licensees who ob-
tained their license through assignment methods other
than competitive bidding; or
‘‘(E) prevent the Commission from awarding li-
censes to those persons who make significant contribu-
tions to the development of a new telecommunications
service or technology.
‘‘(6) Moneys received from competitive bidding pursu-
ant to this subsection shall be deposited in the general fund
of the Treasury.’’
(c) STATE AND LOCAL TAX TREATMENT OF LICENSES
AND PERMITS.—Title VII of the Act (47 U.S.C. 601 et seq.)
is amended by adding at the end the following new section:
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‘‘SEC. 714. STATE AND LOCAL TAX TREATMENT OF LI-
CENSES AND PERMITS.
‘‘A license or permit issued by the Commission under
this Act shall not be treated as the property of the licensee
for property tax purposes, or other similar tax purposes,
by any State or local government entity.’’.
SEC. 4009. REGULATORY PARITY.
(a) AMENDMENT.—Section 332 of the Act (47 U.S.C.
332) is amended—
(1) by striking ‘‘PRIVATE LAND’’ from the head-
ing of the section; and
(2) by amending subsection (c) to read as
follows:
‘‘(c)(1)(A) A person engaged in the provision of com-
mercial mobile services shall, insofar as such person is so
engaged, be treated as a common carrier for purposes of
this Act, except that the Commission may waive the require-
ments of sections 203, 204, 205, and 214, and the 30-day
notice provision of section 309(a), for commercial mobile
services and such other provisions of title II as the Commis-
sion may, consistent with the public interest, specify by
rule. In prescribing any such rule, the Commission may
not waive for commercial mobile services the requirements
of section 201, 202, 206, 208, 209, 215(c), 216, 217, 220
(d) or (e), 223, 225, 226 (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g), or
(i), 227, or 228, or any other provision that is necessary
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in order to ensure that the charges, practices, classifications,
or regulations for or in connection with commercial mobile
services are just and reasonable and are not unjustly or un-
reasonably discriminatory or that is otherwise in the public
interest.
‘‘(B) Upon reasonable request of any person providing
commercial mobile service, the Commission shall order a
common carrier to establish physical connections with such
service pursuant to section 201. Except to the extent that
the Commission is required to respond to such a request,
this subparagraph shall not be construed as a limitation
or expansion of the Commission’s authority to order inter-
connection under this Act.
‘‘(2) A person engaged in private land mobile service
shall not, insofar as such person is so engaged, be treated
as a common carrier for any purpose under this Act. A
common carrier shall not provide any dispatch service on
any frequency allocated for common carrier service, except
to the extent that such dispatch service is provided on sta-
tions licensed by the Commission in the Specialized Mobile
Radio Service prior to May 24, 1993, or is provided on
stations licensed in the domestic public land mobile radio
service before January 1, 1982. The Commission may by
regulation terminate, in whole or in part, the prohibition
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contained in the preceding sentence if the commission deter-
mines that such termination will service the public interest.
‘‘(3)(A) Notwithstanding sections 2(b) and 221(b), no
State or local government shall have any authority to regu-
late the entry of or the rates charged by any commercial
mobile service or any private land mobile service, except
that this paragraph shall not prohibit a State from regulat-
ing the other terms and conditions of commercial mobile
services. Nothing in this subparagraph shall exempt provid-
ers of commercial mobile services (where such services are
a substitute for land line telephone exchange service for a
substantial portion of the communications within such
State) from requirements imposed by a State commission
on all providers of telecommunications services necessary to
ensure the continued availability of telephone exchange serv-
ice at affordable rates.
‘‘(B) Notwithstanding subparagraph (A), a State may
petition the Commission for authority to regulate the rates
for any commercial mobile service if such State dem-
onstrates that (i) such service is a substitute for land line
telephone exchange service for a substantial portion of the
communications within such State, or (ii) market condi-
tions with respect to such services fail to protect subscribers
adequately from unjust and unreasonable rates or rates that
are unjustly or unreasonably discriminatory. The Commis-