Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Timmy Step-Up Or Step Off- More Nextel Whining- 800 MHz Back And Forth Continues

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 15:15:52 -0400

Timmy Step-Up Or Step Off
800 MHz Back And Forth Continues
BY MARK ROCKWELL
APRIL 23, 2004

WASHIGTON -- Nextel Communications fired back at Verizon Wireless' multi-billion-dollar pledge for 10 MHz of spectrum in a filing on the 800 MHz proceeding at the FCC late yesterday, calling the $5 billion vow "anti-competitive noise."
The company also argued that a shift by the FCC from the proposed 1.9 GHz replacement spectrum it might receive in a swap to 2.1 GHz would be detrimental at this stage of the negotiations. Although Nextel had initially put the
2.1 GHz spectrum forward as an option in the swap back in November 2001, the FCC, Nextel says, went with the 1.9 GHz option in a rulemaking in 2002.
Backtracking to 2.1 GHz at this point, according to Nextel's letter, would require substantial changes in relocation of broadcasters and microwave licensees, not to mention higher development costs.

Those familiar with the negotiations over the spectrum swap at the FCC say the issue of offering 2.1 GHz as replacement spectrum has come up again in the final stretch of negotiations before a ruling is issued in the coming weeks.
Nextel, however, saved some of its sharpest words for Verizon Wireless' pledge of an "outlandish" $5 billion opening bid on the 10 MHz at 1.9 GHz. It called the offer mere "posturing" and casts doubt on whether the carrier would actually go through with any bid on the spectrum. "It is also conditioned on the immediate auction of a nationwide 1.9 GHz license that would be governed by the broadband PCS rules. These conditions provide Verizon with several ready excuses to retract its bid offer," the filing says.
Nextel repeatedly mentions Verizon Wireless' "eye-popping" bid of $8.8 billion for NextWave Telecom's re-auctioned spectrum and the company's desperate efforts to cancel the bids "after the downturn in the stock market and continuing uncertainties" over FCC cancellation of the licenses.
The company adds that its spectrum swap deal would benefit emergency responders, while Verizon's proposed auction of the spectrum leaves those entities out of the equation.
Verizon Wireless called the most recent Nextel arguments imaginative and surreal. "It's 'Alice Through The Looking Glass'," says Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeffrey Nelson. "Nextel could have cleared this [emergency responders interference] mess up years ago."

http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=newsat2direct&starting=2&pubdate=04/23/04

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