PIONEER PREFERENCES.

SEC. 801. PIONEER PREFERENCES. Section 309(j) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 309(j)) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph: “(13) Recovery of value of public spectrum in connection with pioneer preferences.— “(A) In general.—Notwithstanding paragraph (6)(G), the Commission shall not award licenses pursuant to a preferential treatment accorded by the Commission to persons who make significant contributions to the development of a new telecommunications service or technology, except in accordance with the requirements of this paragraph. “(B) Recovery of value.— The Commission shall recover for the public a portion of the value of the public spectrum resource made available to such person by requiring such person, as a condition for receipt of the license, to agree to pay a sum determined by— “(i) identifying the winning bids for the licenses that the Commission determines are most reasonably comparable in terms of bandwidth, scope of service area, usage restrictions, and other technical characteristics to the license awarded to such person, and excluding licenses that the Commission determines are subject to bidding anomalies due to the award of preferential treatment; “(ii) dividing each such winning bid by the population of its service area (hereinafter referred to as the per capita bid amount); “(iii) computing the average of the per capita bid amounts for the licenses identified under clause (i); “(iv) reducing such average amount by 15 percent; and “(v) multiplying the amount determined under clause (iv) by the population of the service area of the license obtained by such person. 108 STAT. 5051 “(C) Installments permitted.—The Commission shall require such person to pay the sum required by subparagraph (B) in a lump sum or in guaranteed installment payments, with or without royalty payments, over a period of not more than 5 years. “(D) Rulemaking on pioneer preferences.— Except with respect to pending applications described in clause (iv) of this subparagraph, the Commission shall prescribe regulations specifying the procedures and criteria by which the Commission will evaluate applications for preferential treatment in its licensing processes (by precluding the filing of mutually exclusive applications) for persons who make significant contributions to the development of a new service or to the development of new technologies that substantially enhance an existing service. Such regulations shall— “(i) specify the procedures and criteria by which the significance of such contributions will be determined, after an opportunity for review and verification by experts in the radio sciences drawn from among persons who are not employees of the Commission or by any applicant for such preferential treatment; “(ii) include such other procedures as may be necessary to prevent unjust enrichment by ensuring that the value of any such contribution justifies any reduction in the amounts paid for comparable licenses under this subsection; “(iii) be prescribed not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this paragraph; “(iv) not apply to applications that have been accepted for filing on or before September 1, 1994; and “(v) cease to be effective on the date of the expiration of the Commission’s authority under subparagraph (F). “(E) Implementation with respect to pending applications.— In applying this paragraph to any broadband licenses in the personal communications service awarded pursuant to the preferential treatment accorded by the Federal Communications Commission in the Third Report and Order in General Docket 90–314 (FCC 93–550, released February 3, 1994)— “(i) the Commission shall not reconsider the award of preferences in such Third Report and Order, and the Commission shall not delay the grant of licenses based on such awards more than 15 days following the date of enactment of this paragraph, and the award of such preferences and licenses shall not be subject to administrative or judicial review; “(ii) the Commission shall not alter the bandwidth or service areas designated for such licenses in such Third Report and Order; “(iii) except as provided in clause (v), the Commission shall use, as the most reasonably comparable licenses for purposes of subparagraph (B)(i), the broadband licenses in the personal communications service for blocks A and B for the 20 largest markets 108 STAT. 5052(ranked by population) in which no applicant has obtained preferential treatment; “(iv) for purposes of subparagraph (C), the Commission shall permit guaranteed installment, payments over a period of 5 years, subject to— “(I) the payment only of interest on unpaid balances during the first 2 years, commencing not later than 30 days after the award of the license (including any preferential treatment used in making such award) is final and no longer subject to administrative or judicial review, except that no such payment shall be required prior to the date of completion of the auction of the comparable licenses described in clause (iii); and “(II) payment of the unpaid balance and interest thereon after the end of such 2 years in accordance with the regulations prescribed by the Commission; and “(v) the Commission shall recover with respect to broadband licenses in the personal communications service an amount under this paragraph that is equal to not less than $400,000,000, and if such amount is less than $400,000,000, the Commission shall recover an amount equal to $400,000,000 by allocating such amount among the holders of such licenses based on the population of the license areas held by each licensee. The Commission shall not include in any amounts required to be collected under clause (v) the interest on unpaid balances required to be collected under clause (iv). “(F) Expiration.—The authority of the Commission to provide preferential treatment in licensing procedures (by precluding the filing of mutually exclusive applications) to persons who make significant contributions to the development of a new service or to the development of new technologies that substantially enhance an existing service shall expire on September 30, 1998. “(G) Effective date.—This paragraph shall be effective on the date of its enactment and apply to any licenses issued on or after August 1, 1994, by the Federal Communications Commission pursuant to any licensing procedure 108 STAT. 5053that provides preferential treatment (by precluding the filing of mutually exclusive applications) to persons who make significant contributions to the development of a new service or to the development of new technologies that substantially enhance an existing service.”.