Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Rep. Vito Fossella and other House members seeking to disconnect Nextel

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 02:35:28 -0500

Rep. Vito Fossella and other House members seeking to disconnect Nextel
Sunday, March 07, 2004

Verizon and Nextel vie for the
high-cash spoils of coveted radio
frequencies

WASHINGTON -- A high-stakes battle for control
of valuable radio spectrum licenses escalated
here recently when 23 members of the House, led
by Rep. Vito Fossella, backed Verizon over a rival
-- Nextel Communications -- in the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) proceeding.

The agency is considering a Nextel plan to eliminate the interference on
the public safety radio frequency caused by the rapid growth of
cell-phone services in recent years. The proposal calls for Nextel, a
Virginia-based cell-phone company, to vacate the frequencies next to the
emergency portion of the spectrum and move to a higher bandwidth.
As a part of the deal, Nextel, which is the nation's fifth biggest
wireless communications company,
has offered to pay $850 million for relocating itself and other
commercial operators using
the public safety spectrum. Nextel officials say the plan is fair
because it requires them to give up spectrum space of proven value in
exchange for a replacement spectrum.

But Verizon and other critics of the proposal say it would be a bonanza
for Nextel, an outright gift of frequencies worth at least $5 million.
Combined with the resulting enhancement of Nextel's existing share of
the spectrum, the total value of the windfall would be $7.2 billion.

To stave off the FCC's approval of the plan, Verizon recently urged the
agency to auction the frequencies in question.
"There is absolutely no justification for squandering such a valuable
asset by giving it away to Nextel or anyone else ..," said Verizon Vice
President Molly Feldman in a letter to the FCC.

Verizon's plea was immediately endorsed by Fossella and 22 House
colleagues of both parties.
"We are troubled by reports that the commission may address the
interference problems in a manner that will mean an economic windfall to
one company ..." the members wrote in a letter to the FCC authored by
Fossella.

Six of the signers, including Fossella, are members of the House
subcommittee on telecommunications. Like many other House members of
both parties, the Staten Island congressman has benefited from millions
of dollars in campaign contributions doled out by Verizon in recent
years.  Fossella has gotten over $25,000 from Verizon and Verizon
Wireless' political action committees since first running for Congress
in 1997.

The silencing of the interference on frequencies reserved for fire,
police and other emergency personnel "must be addressed expeditiously,
but it must be done in a way that is in the best interest of the
public," the House members' letter said.

Nextel officials have responded by accusing Verizon and its supporters
of mounting "an absolute and unrelenting effort to put its commercial
interests above the critical needs of first responders and the Americans
they serve."

But, to the glee of Verizon, Nextel's cause has been undermined by the
news that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating the company's
near monopoly of the "push-to-talk" walkie-talkie market. Federal
investigators have asked Verizon, Nextel and Motorola, its chief parts
supplier, for information on the issue.

"The FCC should not be giving free spectrum space worth billions of
dollars to a company now under investigation for anti-trust violations,"
Verizon wireless said in a recent press statement.

The probe was triggered partly by data included in a lawsuit that was
filed by Verizon against Nextel last summer, according to the Wall
Street Journal.

Nextel, however, has its own political allies, including an old
Republican comrade of Fossella, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. For the
past year, Giuliani and associates in his consulting firm -- Giuliani
Partners -- have been working pro bono with Nextel to help the FCC
prepare a report outlining how local governments can communicate more
efficiently with the public during catastrophic crises.

In connection with the project, Nextel recently offered Giuliani's firm
compensation worth up to $15 million to help the company steer its
spectrum reshuffling plan through the FCC.

At least before the intervention of Fossella and his House colleagues,
the officials of the federal agency were said to be leaning in favor of
the Nextel proposal because if offered a quick way of purging the
interference from the pubic safety frequency at little or no cost to the
government.

Terence J. Kivlan is the Advance Washington Bureau correspondent. His
column appears each week in the Sunday Advance Perspective section.  His
e-mail address is [email-masked].

http://www.silive.com/columnists/kivl/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1078669061115490.xml

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