The Cutting Edge: Computing / Technology / Innovation : Nine Win Paging Licenses

The government auction of regional paging licenses ended Tuesday with nine groups submitting winning bids for licenses to offer a new generation of paging and messaging services.

PageMart Inc. and PCS Development Corp.--a consortium that includes Arch Communications Corp., A-Plus Communications and USA Mobile Communications Inc.--were the big winners. Each offered to pay more than $90 million for five regional licenses, enough to gain nationwide coverage.

In addition, American Paging Inc., MobileMedia Corp., AirTouch Communications, Benbow PCS Ventures and individual investor Lisa-Gaye Shearing each captured several licenses. Ameritech Corp. and Insta-Check Systems Inc. won a single license each.

Total high bids for the auction rose over 10 days to $488.8 million. However, groups owned by minorities and women will get 40% discounts from the Federal Communications Commission on some of the licenses, so the government’s total earnings from the auction will be $394.8 million.

The winners will use the licenses to offer such things as “pocket answering machine services,” delivering voice or electronic messages directly to small pagers.

“We’re very excited to be standing on what we believe is the edge of a whole new wave of personal communication technologies,” said Maceo Sloan, chairman of PCS Development. “There are all kinds of exciting possibilities.”

The licenses awarded Tuesday enable the winners to offer the two-way wireless services in five regions of the country. These supplement 10 national paging licenses the FCC auctioned in July.