Opinion ID: 604767
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Commission's Subsequent Conduct

Text: 48 Since our inquiry focuses on the notice provided by the Second Report and Order, the contents of the order itself are the most important consideration. Looking beyond the four corners of the order, however, we find that the Commission's subsequent conduct only reinforces petitioners' argument that the Commission provided them with no notice of the interpretation on which it based its dismissal of their applications. The Commission's initial acceptance of these applications for filing, while not dispositive, see 47 C.F.R. §§ 22.26(a) and (b), 11 is nonetheless relevant, as the Commission staff's misinterpretation of the order undermines the Commission's claim that it gave clear notice of its intended meaning. Moreover, the Commission retained some of petitioners' applications for as long as nine months and entertained a complete petition to deny cycle with respect to all of the unserved area applications before concluding that the applications were untimely. In addition, the Commission has repeated, again with no mention of any public notice requirement, its statement that [a]fter five years, non-licensees may file applications for the unserved portions of the MSA. See Fourth Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 3 F.C.C.Rcd. 4050 (1988) (emphasis added); Fifth Report and Order, CC Docket No. 85-388, FCC 99-320 (November 1, 1988); see also Public Notice, Report No. CL-88-148 (August 18, 1988) (rescinding the grant of a fill-in application filed by a nonlicensee before the expiration of the five-year period, stating that it could not be filed until after the five-year mark, but not mentioning any other condition precedent). Finally, the Commission has made a number of subsequent statements that seem to reaffirm an intent to accept nonincumbents' applications at the end of the expansion period. See, e.g., Amendment of Section 22.902(b), 3 F.C.C.Rcd. 6614, 6616 n. 5 (1988): (It [301 U.S.App.D.C. 93] bears noting that unserved portions of MSAs where the five year 'fill-in' period has elapsed are available and a few non-wirelines have already applied for these authorizations.); Amendment of the Commission's Rules for Rural Cellular Service (Fifth Report and Order), 3 F.C.C.Rcd. 6401 (1988) (exclusivity period longer than five years would deprive some areas of service while five-year limit will insure prompt service to the public).