WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission is considering abandoning the 220-222 MHz test-bed for narrowband technology in favor of a flexible licensing scheme that would permit alternative technologies for services other than dispatch such as paging, data and fixed wireless.
The July 28 proposal comes in the face of legal and regulatory delays since the adoption of rules in 1991 that have hindered the development of the narrowband market and at the same time created an opportunity for federal regulators to sell licenses once given away in lotteries.
For example, FCC Chairman Reed Hundt believes a quarter billion dollars can be raised by auctioning four 220 MHz nationwide narrowband licenses and an assortment of local and regional licenses.
To do that, the agency would have to boot the applications of AT&T Corp., General Electric Co., United Parcel Service, McGraw Hill Inc., Airborne Freight Co. and 28 others that were filed before Congress authorized auctions in 1993.
Commissioner James Quello said he would rather license pending nationwide applications by lottery, but Hundt appears to have enough votes and support from the GOP-led Congress to conduct an auction.
The four nationwide permits at issue were supposed to be licensed for internal communications by firms, but the agency now wants to remove that restriction so that commercial subscriber-based services can be offered. Already, four firms have been granted commercial nationwide narrowband licenses.
Under the FCC plan, the agency would assign 60 channels in 172 markets bigger than basic trading areas yet smaller than major trading areas. Sixty-five channels would be allotted in each of five regions. Licenses would have 10-year terms and operators would be subject to five- and 10-year construction benchmarks.
The commission said it intends to offer incentives to women, minorities, small businesses and rural telephone companies in 220 MHz auctions.
The proposed removal of the private-commercial distinction for the four remaining nationwide narrowband licenses and the uncertain future now confronted by manufacturers who pioneered narrowband technology with the federal government’s blessing angers Alan Shark, president of the American Mobile Telecommunications Association.
“We believe the FCC has abdicated its responsibility to manufacturers it urged to invest in and develop narrowband technology and to licensees who made commitments to use narrowband to provide spectrally efficient, competitive services,” said Shark.
“It would have been one thing to change the rules and expectations if narrowband technology had proven that it does not work,” he added. “In fact, the technology works extremely well. The industry has never been given a chance to demonstrate its viability.”
Shark, however, said he supports technical flexibility and geographic licensing in the 220-222 MHz band.
While the initiative opens the door for new digital technologies to operate on spectrum reserved for narrowband, it is not at all clear that narrowband equipment suppliers will necessarily lose out to other vendors given the small amount of bandwidth (two megahertz) with which they have to work and the limitations of competing technologies.
“I think it’s balanced and looks good,” said David Thompson, president SEA Inc., a leading narrowband equipment producer in Mountlake Terrace, Wash.
“We strongly support rapid implementation [of the next licensing phase]. The implementation is a far greater concern to me.”
Other manufacturers include Securicor Radiocom Ltd., E.F. Johnson Co. and Uniden America Corp.
Still left unresolved, but expected to be addressed shortly, are requests from local narrowband licensees for approval to relocate antenna tower sites that were around four years ago when 60,000 applications were filed but are gone today.
Action on that front raises the question of how much extra time, if any, beyond Dec. 31, will the FCC give operators to complete construction of local 5-channel trunked narrowband systems. About 3,800 narrowband licenses have been granted and several hundred systems are on the air.
