Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Federal communications commission - Spectrum battle splits wireless firms

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 02:05:19 -0500

3/25/04

Federal communications commission - Spectrum battle splits wireless
firms
By Michael S. Gerber

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is expected to make a
decision soon in a battle between Nextel and its competitors over how to
prevent interference on public-safety radio systems.

Across the country, the 800 megahertz (MHz) system has become the
number-one choice for public safety and utility communications. Parts of
the 800 MHz range also have been allocated to private-sector wireless
providers, causing interference with police, fire, EMS and utility
companies’ radios in certain communities.

After several years of debate, the FCC is nearing a final decision,
according to several sources close to the issue. At the heart of the
matter is a proposal —backed by Nextel and some public-safety groups —
that would give Nextel, the largest private user of 800 MHz
communications, 10 MHz at a different bandwidth level, 1.9 gigahertz
(GHz). Nextel’s competitors say such an allocation would be a huge boon
to Nextel, which currently uses several non-contiguous chunks of the 800
MHz band.
Nextel counters that revamping its system for the new bandwidth would
actually cost the company billions of dollars. But last month, after
extensive lobbying by Nextel’s wireless competitors, 23 members of the
House of Representatives, led by Reps. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.) and Rick
Boucher (D-Va.), wrote a letter to FCC Chairman Michael Powell
describing their concern that the plan would result in an “economic
windfall” for Nextel and violate a law that requires competitive bidding
for bandwidth.

“To a large degree I think [Fossella] and the FCC are sort of on the
same page,” said Fossella spokesman Craig Donner. But Fossella, Donner
said, is concerned that Nextel would not be paying fair market value for
the bandwidth it would receive. The group of lawmakers also told Powell
that they fear that upgrades to public-safety radios, which would be
necessary under the plan, would place a large burden on taxpayers.

Nextel has offered to pay around $850 million, most of which would go
toward retuning public safety radios. But some lawmakers and
conservative taxpayer organizations want a more open-ended agreement
that would require Nextel to pay for all the retuning, even if costs
exceed what Nextel has offered to pay.

“The big concern with the plan is that the [funds] being provided for
upgrading public safety … [are] not going to be sufficient,” Donner
said. “Public safety doesn’t have $1 billion. ... Ultimately it’s going
to be the responsibility of the taxpayers.”
Nextel’s competitors in the wireless industry have proposed a more
targeted solution.
They say it would be more cost effective and much faster simply to fix
problems where they exist — through a variety of methods, from turning
down the power or using filters on a cell site to rebanding at a local
level.

“Our plan aims to fix current interference within 60 days,” said Travis
Larson, a spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet
Association (CTIA), which opposes reconfiguring the spectrum
allocations. “It’s fast, it’s efficient and it’s done with no cost to
public safety.”

But, Larson added, the CTIA is not opposed to reallocating within the
800 MHz
range at a local level when parties involved decide that is the best
solution. “We’
re against nationwide rebanding,” he said, pointing out that some
localities, such
as Denver, have chosen rebanding as the best way to solve interference
problems.

Nextel officials — who have the support of several national
public-safety organizations, including the International Association of
Fire Chiefs and the International Association of Chiefs of Police —
contend that fixing specific problems would be more difficult than
reallocating spectrum.

Some local public-safety officials, though, including fire and police
chiefs in various communities around the country, have broken from their
national organizations on this issue and supported the idea of fixing
problems when they occur.
To prevent future interference, they suggest testing of all new cellular
systems before implementation.

In their letter to Powell, Fossella and Boucher suggested alternative
solutions, such as reallocating spectrum nationwide within the 800 MHz
range, which would give Nextel a contiguous bandwidth but not at the 1.9
GHz level. Some analysts say that the bandwidth at the 1.9 GHz level —
which one competitor said would give Nextel the ability to expand into
data and video transmission — would bring in billions of dollars in a
public auction.

But Powell responded that any spectrum reallocation would likely require
the use of bandwidth outside the 800 MHz range, because while systems
are being retuned or moved, they need spectrum space to use temporarily,
known as “green space.”

http://www.hillnews.com/executive/032504_fcc.aspx
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