Presumably on the notion that nothing ventured is nothing gained, License Acquisitions, LLC (LA), a new member of the M2M Networks/Smartcomm family of companies, requested a waiver to reinstate four 800 MHz Guard Band licenses that are to be moved to the Enhanced Specialized Mobile Radio (ESMR) Band. LA only holds 11 licenses with two expiration dates but managed to miss this one despite the FCC renewal reminder and the fact that at the same time it was seeking reconsideration of the FCC’s denial of its request to rescind its ESMR election for these very licenses. Having certified to the FCC that it had purchased equipment, bought real property, and entered into site leases for its ESMR operation, it now has decided that it wants to stay in the Guard Band and – who would have guessed – lease its spectrum to M2M Spectrum Networks (now doing business as Iota) to support a national IoT network. EWA opposed the request on July 6, noting that the explanation for the renewal failure didn’t hold water and that the FCC had denied similar requests from licensees that, unlike LA, actually had built systems and were providing service to live customers.    

LA later filed a response to EWA’s opposition noting that our objections were “riddled with inaccuracies”, that we “lacked standing” and that our opposition suggested “personal animus” rather than any policy concerns. Whatever …