Access to airwaves licenses

Federal regulators approved regulations yesterday designed to ensure that entrepreneurs, minorities and women have the chance to compete in the government's auctions of airwaves for new wireless communications services.

The Federal Communications Commission, in a unanimous decision, ruled that nearly half of the roughly 2,000 airwaves licenses should be reserved for bidding only by groups that would have difficulty winning out against the likes of deep-pocketed cellular telephone giants.

FCC Chairman Reed Hundt cited predictions that the licenses designated for the groups could allow them to provide service to about 25 percent of the 100 million consumers that are projected to be mobile phone users a decade from now.

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