May 13, 1994               
                                     
                                    
     THIS SUMMER'S PCS AND IVDS AUCTIONS OFFER OPPORTUNITY FOR SMALL
      BUSINESSES, WOMEN AND MINORITIES TO ENTER TELECOMMUNICATIONS
                                INDUSTRY

     This summer the Federal Communications Commission will, for
the first time, conduct auctions to award new licenses in the
narrowband personal communications service (PCS) and the
Interactive Video and Data Service (IVDS).  
     
     The Commission will be issuing a total of 3,554 narrowband
PCS licenses and 1,468 IVDS licenses.

     Narrowband PCS is a form of wireless communications that
might be considered enhanced paging. It includes advanced voice
paging, two-way acknowledgement, data messaging and both one-way
and two-way messaging and facsimile. (Auctions for broadband PCS,
which will operate like an improved cellular telephone service,
will be held later this year.) Start-up costs for this service
are expected to be quite high.

     IVDS is a service that allows licensees to provide
information, products, or services to individual subscribers
located at fixed locations in the service area, and subscribers
may provide responses.  Start-up costs for this service are
expected to be relatively low.

     Congress has mandated that "designated entities," - small
business and businesses owned by women and minorities -- be given
preferences in the auction process.  The Commission has adopted
rules to implement this preference that specify that:

     -- The Commission will set up an installment payment plan
for small businesses.  This plan will permit paying just the
interest for the first two years with the remaining payments of
interest and principal authorized over the remainder of the
license term;


                                  (over)


                                   - 2 -

     -- The Commission will also institute a system of bidding
credits for businesses owned by women and minorities bidding on
certain narrowband PCS and IVDS licenses.  The bidding credits
will operate as a discount on the amount of a winning bid that
will actually have to be paid to obtain a license; and 

     -- Licensees may use tax certificates to attract start-up
capital to their ventures and to encourage licensees to transfer
narrowband PCS licenses to firms owned by women and minorities in
the aftermarket for such licenses. 

     The Commission noted that these preferences should help
promote access to narrowband PCS and IVDS services for new small
business, minority and female entrants to the telecommunications
field.  It also noted that IVDS, with its expected relatively low
capital entry requirements, is particularly well suited for
ownership by designated entities and other potential bidders that
might otherwise lack the financial resources to compete equitably
in the auction process. 

     The Commission has adopted stringent safeguards to prevent
misuse of these preferences.

     For more information on these auctions, you may call the
FCC's Auctions hotline at (202) 418-1400; hearing impaired
customers can contact the hotline via Text Telephone at (202)
632-6999.

     News Media contact: Rosemary Kimball and Susan Lewis Sallet
at (202) 632-5050.
     Consumers and hotline contact: Patti Grace Smith at (202)
632-0260.
     Small Business contact: John Winston at (202) 632-1571.     

                           - FCC -