Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Group urges lawmakers to overturn FCC 800 MHz decision;

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 06 Aug 2004 13:51:03 -0400

Group urges lawmakers to overturn FCC 800 MHz decision; 

CTIA attempts to make amends with public safety

by Heather Forsgren Weaver

Aug. 06, 2004

WASHINGTON

The First Response Coalition seized the heightened terror alerts in New
York and Washington and the recently released 9/11 Commission report to
once again urge lawmakers to overturn the Federal Communication
Commission’s recently adopted decision on how to solve public-safety
interference in the 800 MHz band. 

(http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/NEXTEL-1/message/19895 and 
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/NEXTEL-1/message/19932)

“We believe that recent developments make an extremely powerful case for
immediate hearings on the interoperability crisis and the overturning of
the FCC/Nextel Communications Inc. spectrum grab, which was carried out
in violation of the intent of Congress,” wrote Gene Stilp, coordinator
of the First Response Coalition, in a letter sent to the House Select
Committee on Homeland Security, the House Government Reform Committee
and the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. 

The FCC voted unanimously last month to reconfigure the 800 MHz band to
solve public-safety interference. As part of the plan, Nextel will pay
nearly $5 billion in both cash and spectrum to gain access to spectrum
in the 1.9 GHz band and give up spectrum in the 800 and 700 MHz bands
and receive spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band. It is unclear whether Nextel
will accept the plan because the company has refused to comment until
the full text is released. Many expect the FCC to release the text early
next week at the annual meeting of the Association of Public-safety
Communications Officials in Montreal. The plan must then survive an
expected legal challenge either by Nextel if it chooses to reject the
plan or one of Nextel’s critics. 

One of Nextel’s critics, the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet
Association, seems to have quietly decided to back down from its
opposition. 

“CTIA, an association which represents the cellular industry and an
opponent of the Consensus Plan, has written to the International
Association of Fire Chiefs stating that since the FCC has spoken it will
now work with IAFC and other public-safety organizations to remedy the
interference as quickly as possible,” said IAFC in a press release
Tuesday. 

Neither CTIA nor IAFC would release the letter. 

“We are not going to release the letter at this time, but I have seen
the press release and would agree with the way they have categorized the
correspondence. It does not mean that we support the Consensus Plan, but
rather, we acknowledge that the FCC did not adopt our proposal to solve
the interference issue. We continue to recognize the most critical
element is to rectify the interference issue as expeditiously as
possible,” said John Walls, CTIA vice president of public affairs. “We
still reserve comment on the FCC order until we see the document, but we
certainly agree with the principle that the most important component of
this discussion is public safety’s needs and implementation of the most
viable and expedient solution.” 

The Consensus Plan was the proposal put forward by Nextel, some
public-safety advocates and private wireless. The FCC adopted
significant portions of the plan but has made some changes, including
requiring Nextel to pay money into the treasury if the value of the
spectrum it returns and relocation expenses do not equal $4.8 billion. 

 http://rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=19115

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