Date set for dish spectrum sale

Jan. 14 is the new date for a Federal Communications Commission auction of
spectrum slated for a new terrestrial-based dish TV system that would compete
with DBS and cable.

Primary applicants for the frequencies, located on the same band as DBS, are
Northpoint Technology and MDS America.

Northpoint, however, has asked federal judges to block the sale on grounds
that it went to great expense to prove the service viable and there were no
competing applications at the time it filed for the license.

On the block will be licenses for 214 markets in the 50 states, Guam, Puerto
Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Northern Mariana Islands.

Minimum bids range from $961,000 for New York City to $1,000 for rural
Alaska.