Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel won’t say whether 800 MHz "Scam Plan" is ‘take it or leave it’

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 2003 14:52:54 -0400

Nextel won’t say whether 800 MHz "Scam Plan" is ‘take it or leave it’

by Heather Forsgren Weaver
Oct. 09, 2003

WASHINGTON

Nextel Communications Inc. refused to say today whether it will turn down any plan
proffered by the Federal Communications Commission to solve the interference
problem public-safety is experiencing in the 800 MHz band if it does not include
Nextel receiving 10 megahertz of spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band. 

“If the FCC makes a different decision, then we will have to see if it makes us
whole and what it is. We obviously believe there are essential elements in the
consensus proposal. We have to be whole, if we are going to put in funding. We
have to solve the interference problem,” Lawrence Krevor, Nextel vice president of
government affairs, told reporters after he participated on an 800 MHz Band “Face
Off” at the Private Wireless Summit sponsored by the Industrial Telecommunications
Association. 

During the debate, Brian Fontes, vice president of federal affairs for Cingular
Wireless L.L.C. and a leading opponent of the Nextel/private
wireless/public-safety proposal to shuffle the licensees at 800 MHz, asked Larry
point blank whether they would walk away from the table if the 1.9 GHz spectrum
was not included in any proposal by the FCC, but he did not get a direct answer. 

“Nextel says in their filing that if they do not get this 10 megahertz nationwide,
rebanding is off the table. I don’t know why they don’t want to answer the
question,” said Fontes. “I appreciate the dance around it, and I appreciate
putting it in the laps of the FCC, but the fundamental question is: Is the value
still on the table if you don’t get the 10 megahertz? And if you got your answer
out of that—good luck!” 

To sweeten the pot for the spectrum, Nextel has offered to pay $850 million to
retune public safety and private wireless but doubts were raised during the debate
whether that amount was adequate or whether Nextel would continue to agree to such
amount if it did not receive the 1.9 GHz spectrum. 

Another debate resolves around exactly how much support the consensus proposal has
in the public-safety community. The Association for Public-safety Communications
Officials, is on board but various public-safety agencies around the country have
come out against it. 

The debate is likely to continue tomorrow when FCC Chairman Michael Powell appears
at the summit. 

The consensus proposal, proposed by Nextel Communications Inc., private-wireless
entities and some public-safety advocates, would split the 800 MHz band into two
parts—one for cellularized systems and one for non-cellularized systems. 

The balanced-approach proposal, sponsored by Cingular, the Cellular
Telecommunications & Internet Association, and the United Telecom Council, calls
for timely resolution of current interference at the expense of the interferer,
coupled with technical rules, notification and coordination procedures to prevent
new interference. 

http://rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=15403

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