Bankruptcy Touches 800 MHz Transition Team

The economic downturn and bankruptcy have intruded on the 800 MHz retuning project mandated by the FCC and now underway nationwide. The role of BearingPoint Inc. in the Transition Administrator (TA) role will be replaced with Deloitte LLP, after the former company declared bankruptcy. In 2004 the FCC approved establishing a TA to oversee the complex process of separating 800 MHz frequency assignments, retuning radios and having Sprint-Nextel pay for the entire process. The TA consists of three entities: engineering companies BearingPoint Inc. and Baseline Telecom Inc., and the law firm of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP. Last Feb. BearingPoint filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and the consulting firm of Deloitte agreed to buy BearingPoint’s assets. Now the FCC has approved the formal transfer of BearingPoint’s duties under the TA to Deloitte’s consulting division. One technicality: the TA was formally owned by BearingPoint so the TA could enter into contracts. Now, because a Deloitte division serves as an auditor for certain 800 MHz “stakeholders,” they will not become the owner to avoid any conflicts of intereste. Rather, Baseline will assume the TA ownership role. Download (pdf) the entire FCC action here.