Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Verizon tells FCC it could be violating criminal laws if it awards Nextel 1.9GHZ

From: NEXTEL-1
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 19:29:42 -0000

Verizon tells FCC it could be violating criminal laws if it awards Nextel 1.9GHZ

Nextel 1.9 GHz spectrum
by Heather Forsgren Weaver
June 29, 2004 12:40 PM EST

WASHINGTON-Verizon Communications Inc., the parent company of Verizon 
Wireless, warned the Federal Communications Commission late Monday 
that it could be violating criminal laws if it awards Nextel 
Communications Inc. spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band as part of a solution 
to public-safety interference in the 800 MHz band.

"It is no accident that Congress chose to employ the criminal law to 
police the fiscal accountability of public officials. Congress well 
understood that stewards of public resources could be exposed to 
relentless pressures to convert those resources to private gain. It 
therefore took stern measures, and aimed them directly at the 
officials themselves, to ensure that they would not succumb to these 
pressures and instead remain true to the public interest," said 
William Barr, Verizon executive vice president & general counsel and 
former attorney general under the first President Bush. "The plan you 
are considering is a patent violation of these laws."

Last week, RCR Wireless News reported that FCC Chairman Michael Powell 
proposed to his colleagues that replacement spectrum for solving the 
800 MHz band public-safety interference problem come from 1.9 GHz 
spectrum.

Nextel did not respond immediately for a request for comment.
Barr told the FCC it should let Congress decide whether Nextel should 
get the 1.9 GHz spectrum. On Friday, one of Verizon's supporters, Rep. 
 Jim Nussle (R-Iowa), chairman of the House Budget Committee, 
introduced legislation that would prohibit such an action.
The Consensus Plan would shuffle the 800 MHz band to eliminate the
current situation where public safety, private wireless, Nextel, other
SMRs and cellular carriers are intermingled. In exchange for giving up
spectrum in the 700 MHz, 800 MHz and 900 MHz bands and for paying to
re-tune public safety and private wireless, Nextel has asked for 10
megahertz in the 1.9 GHz band. Nextel; the Industrial

Telecommunications Association, which represents private-wireless 
interests; and some public-safety advocacy groups support the 
Consensus Plan. Other public-safety advocacy groups have expressed 
concern about the Consensus Plan.

The FCC staff sent a proposal to the commissioners in March, and since 
then the wireless industry has been lobbying its various points of 
view. The FCC met in April, May and June without discussing the issue. 
 The commission will release the agenda for its July 8 meeting on 
Thursday evening.

Verizon Wireless and the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet
Association support a plan that would give Nextel replacement spectrum
in the 2.1 GHz band, require Nextel to set up a third-party
administrator for the reimbursement and allow Nextel to receive its
2.1	GHz spectrum only as retuning occurs instead of all at once.

"Nextel's demand that the FCC bypass the public-auction process and 
award it immensely valuable 1.9 GHz spectrum (worth at least $5 
billion) is injurious to the wireless industry and especially to 
Verizon. Given our special need for that spectrum and our demonstrated 
readiness to bid on it, we have told you that as between Nextel's 
proposal and the CTIA compromise by which 2.1 GHz spectrum would be 
sold to Nextel, we obviously would prefer the latter," said Barr.
http://rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=18660

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