WASHINGTON-The future of the American Mobile Telecommunications Association has become
clouded by the anticipated departure of Nextel Communications Inc., the nation’s top dispatch radio operator and a
major underwriter of the trade association.
“We’re reshaping things,” said AMTA President Alan
Shark.
Shark last week confirmed speculation that Nextel likely will leave the association when its membership
comes up for renewal this month.
As such, Shark said the budget for the upcoming fiscal year-which begins in
April-is based on Nextel not returning. The proposed budget will be presented to AMTA’s board of directors on March
7, prior to a management conference in San Diego.
Whether AMTA can survive the revenue loss is unclear. Shark
said AMTA is restructuring dues and will lay off two of its seven staffers. In addition, the trade group has been forced
to cut back its conferences from three to two a year.
Shark said the goal is to “come up with a budget that
makes us less vulnerable to any one member.” He explained that restructured dues will require some specialized
mobile radio members to pay more and allow some to spend less.
Nextel, which pulled out of the Cellular
Telecommunications Industry Association in 1997, did not respond to a request for comment. CTIA spokesman Tim
Ayers declined to comment on whether Nextel plans to rejoin.
It is also unclear whether Nextel could find a home in
the Personal Communications Industry Association, but joining PCIA would be “technically” difficult, said
Mary McDermott, PCIA senior vice president and chief of staff for government relations. The technicality is in the way
PCIA is organized. PCIA is made up of industry-specific sections and Nextel may not feel comfortable in either the
SMR section or the PCS section, McDermott said. She did not preclude Nextel’s membership, she just presented the
hurdles.
Despite its overwhelming presence in the SMR industry, controlling half of the 4.6 million dispatch radio
subscribers, Nextel is one of 25 votes on AMTA’s board and pays substantially more dues than other-albeit much
smaller-members.
But others in the SMR industry believe that, if anything, Nextel has had too much of a voice in
AMTA. Indeed, splinter SMR groups have sprung up in recent years that differed openly with AMTA on policies.
