Subject: [NEXTEL-1] House Commerce Committee to FCC: Deny Nextel 1.9 GHz spectrum

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 17:08:25 -0500

House Commerce Committee
members tell FCC to deny Nextel 1.9 spectrum

by By Heather Forsgren Weaver
Feb. 26, 2004

WASHINGTON

The Federal Communications Commission received
some unsolicited advice from 23 members of Congress
on Thursday on what not to do to solve the public-safety
interference problem in the 800 MHz band.
 
“We are troubled by reports that the FCC may address interference
problems in a manner that results in an economic windfall to one company
and that would violate the competitive bidding requirements of the
Communications Act,” wrote the members of Congress, all of whom are
members of the House Commerce Committee. “The commission must address
interference to public-safety systems in the 800 MHz band as quickly as
possible. The FCC should reband, but should keep all existing 800 MHz
licensees within the band rather than give one or more entities spectrum
outside of the 800 MHz band without conducting an auction.” 

The signatories represent a cross-section of the country and the House
Commerce Committee, but the letter was not signed by any of the House
Commerce Committee leadership and still represents less than half of the
opinion of the members of the committee from both parties. 

There are two differing plans to solve the public-safety interference
problem in the 800 MHz band that was created because public-safety
licensees, private-wireless licensees, enhanced SMR licensees—most
notably Nextel Communications Inc., and cellular licensees were mixed
together. 

The Consensus Plan would shuffle the 800 MHz band to eliminate the
current situation. Nextel has said that $850 million will be sufficient
to pay for the necessary retuning of public-safety and private-wireless
radios. Nextel said it would deposit $100 million in an escrow account
and secure irrevocable lines of credit for the remaining $750 million. 

In exchange for giving up spectrum in the 700, 800 and 900 MHz bands and
for paying to retune public safety and private wireless, Nextel has
asked for 10 megahertz in the 1.9 GHz band. 

RCR Wireless News first reported Oct. 27 that FCC staff is contemplating
a proposal that would give Nextel no more than 6 megahertz of spectrum
in the 1.9 GHz band. 

The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association and the United
Telecom Council favor the Balanced Approach Plan which calls for timely
resolution of current interference at the expense of the interferor,
coupled with technical rules, notification and coordination procedures
to prevent new interference. 

The letter could delay the FCC’s decision-making process. “Please
respond to our questions no later than March 15. We expect the
commission to take no action on this proceeding until the FCC has
responded to our questions and we have had the opportunity to evaluate
the responses,” reads the letter. 

The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau is drafting a solution to
be presented to the commissioners in the coming weeks with a decision
expected in April, said WTB Chief John Muleta on Monday.  
 
 http://rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=17087

-- 
    "NEXTEL-1 IT'S NOT JUST NEXTEL"
  Note The New address 
Subscribe to Nextel-1: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL-1

  "NEXTEL2 FOR iDEN SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS"
Subscribe to Nextel2: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL2

  "WIRELESS FORUM HOMELAND SECURITY GROUP"
     The Complete Resource for Wireless Homeland Security.
Subscribe to WFHSG:  http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/WFHSG

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEXTEL-1/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
     [email-masked]

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