Editor’s Note: This letter originally was sent to President Clinton.
Dear President Clinton,
I want to congratulate you on your accomplishments with President Boris Yeltsin of Russia, however, there is a very serious domestic situation which burdens me and many other small businessmen, as well as small businesses that use specialized mobile radio systems.
The Federal Communications Commission is being directed by former FCC personnel to rewrite the rules to provide opportunities for big businesses like Nextel in the SMR industry. We, the pioneers in the SMR industry, feel the proposed rule changes will take away our opportunity and replace us with competition like Nextel. They (The FCC) intend(s) to auction a block of frequencies in the frequency spectrum that has been fully licensed to us. I don’t believe it is the intent of the president of the United States and Congress to empower the FCC to auction frequencies already licensed and disrupt existing small businesses. It is a disgrace that the FCC has allowed former FCC personnel to infiltrate Nextel and devise rule changes that fully accommodate Nextel. This will force the pioneers of the SMR industry out of business by stripping them of their licenses, equipment, service and survival income, with no recompense. It is my understanding that the FCC will adopt these changes in August 1995. I have approximately 450 SMR subscribers on my 8 channel Ericsson G.E. trunked system. I have plans to expand to Ericsson Digital EDACS Prism system. With the intended rule changes to auction the upper 200 channels in the 800 MHz spectrum, my hopes and the hopes of other small SMR businesses will not be accomplished.
I hope that your office has the power to prevent these rule changes from occurring. The future of small businesses who use two-way dispatching is in the hands of the FCC, Nextel and in your hands.
Thank-you for the time you have taken to read my future as an SMR provider.
Alexander Sabosto
President, A&M Electronics Video & Communications Systems Inc.
