Subject: [NEXTEL-1] FCC Shouldn’t Allow Switch To Terrestrial in MSS Band

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 03:38:01 -0500

Hmmm? ICO......ICO................Where do I know that company from?  Ah......I know
Nextel's Craig McCaw!
You know them .."How Business Gets Done"  people.

Let's see he want to use his free spectrum for a purpose other that what it was originally
intended for. Craig now wants to provide regular, wireless service (Nextel???). What a
guy! I guess he probably telling the FCC it is for the "Benefit of the Consumer" or
similar facsimile.

Timmy's idea for free spectrum must have come from Craig. Picture this Timmy gets 10 Mhz
of free spectrum (opps I know they supposedly paid $2.8B) and sells it to Craig for ICO
and they can now deliver services others can not (i.e. Nextel), or better yet Craig takes
his ICO spectrum and sells it to Timmy now Nextel has nice chunks of spectrum right next
to the big boys and can now compete on their level for billions less . What ever the plan
is something smells fishy.
=============================================================================
December 20, 2002
Via Electronic Filing
Ms. Marlene Dortch
Federal Communications Commission
445 12 th Street, S.W., TW-A325
Washington, D.C. 20554
Re: EX PARTE
ET Docket No. 95-18; IB Docket 01-185; ET Docket 00-258

Dear Ms. Dortch:

On December 18, 2002, on behalf of ICO Global Communications, Craig McCaw
and Gerry Salemme met with Chairman Michael Powell and Legal Advisor Bryan
Tramont. ICO explained the importance of ATC in ensuring ubiquitous and feature-rich
MSS deployment, and emphasized the need for certainty and adequate spectrum
resources to enable global MSS systems to proceed with financing and roll-out of their
business plans.

ICO noted that rules relating to ancillary MSS terrestrial services should not
operate to dictate a specific technology for all licenses, nor freeze MSS licensees™
ability
to enhance the technology of their mobile end user terminals over the life of their
licenses. Rather, the Commission should rely upon market-based incentives to ensure
that MSS licensees focus their services primarily on rural and underserved markets
In accordance with section 1.1206(b) of the Commission™s rules, I am submitting
an electronic copy of this letter. If you have any questions concerning this matter,
please
do not hesitate to contact me.

Very truly yours,
/s/ Suzanne Hutchings
Suzanne Hutchings
ICO Global Communications (Holdings) Ltd.

===================================================================================
FCC Shouldn’t Allow Switch To Terrestrial in MSS Band

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) today
expressed outrage after
reading ICO Global Communications’ December 17th filing with the Federal Communications
Commission, in which ICO
requested that it be allowed to sell wireless phones without satellite capability for use
in its satellite-designated spectrum.

“It’s a classic bait and switch,” said Steve Berry, Senior Vice President of Government
Affairs at CTIA. “ICO promised the
FCC it would build satellite telephone communications and in return, the FCC gave ICO
billions of dollars worth of spectrum
for free. Now, ICO wants to use its free spectrum to provide regular, wireless service --
thumbing its nose at the promises it
made to the FCC, but keeping the spectrum it got in the deal.”

In its filing, ICO claimed that “MSS providers must have the flexibility to offer ATC user
terminals that are more comparable in
size, cost, and battery life to existing terrestrial wireless phones.”

“The only reason ICO needs CMRS phones is to compete head to head with CMRS providers --
without having to pay for the
underlying spectrum,” said Berry. “The FCC should see this charade for what it is, and
deny MSS providers terrestrial
capability altogether. At the very least, it should apply some significant gating criteria
to ensure that any terrestrial service is truly
ancillary, as CTIA suggested in its filing yesterday. The FCC should be offended by this
ploy - it flies squarely in the face of the
Commission’s spectrum management goals.”

CTIA’s filing on this issue is available at
http://www.wow-com.com/filing/pdf/021217_Powell_Letter_-_MSS.pdf

http://www.wow-com.com/articles.cfm?ID=1130

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/