WASHINGTON-New allegations surfaced last week that the Federal Communications Commission is giving Nextel Communications Inc. preferential treatment, claims that come on the coattails of a proposed antitrust settlement between Nextel and the Justice Department that many dispatch operators strongly oppose, and as the agency considers key matters of importance to Nextel.
The accusations, filed with the FCC, were made by the Personal Communications Industry Association and the Industrial Telecommunications Association. Since Nextel’s creation in the late 1980s, there have been grumblings in the specialized mobile radio industry about FCC waivers, geographic licensing and auction rules that many believed have benefited Nextel far more than others.
The trade groups said lack of FCC action on petitions for reconsideration filed nearly two years ago has hurt voluntary relocation of incumbent private wireless licensees in the upper 200 channels at 800 MHz.
While the petitions languish, the WTB is moving forward on Nextel’s waiver requests for private wireless channels, on applications to transfer SMR licenses from bankrupt Geotek Communications Inc. to Nextel, and on a request by Geotek and Hughes Electronics System (a major creditor) to waive coverage requirements for SMR licenses Nextel might buy.
“PCIA and ITA have been clear as to our position on the merits of Nextel’s request. (They oppose it.) But regardless of how the bureau intends to rule on the substance, it is totally unfair to leave the entire SMR industry in a state of uncertainty at this critical time while the bureau devotes its resources to a matter that benefits a single company,” stated PCIA President Jay Kitchen and ITA President Mark Crosby in a July 15 letter to WTR Chief Thomas Sugrue.
In a June 21 letter to the WTB, PCIA questioned why the FCC several months ago “auto-granted” Nextel applications. Supposedly, the licenses were issued because the sheer volume of paperwork filed by Nextel to implement its national wireless system would have brought the Gettysburg, Pa., licensing system to a screeching halt.
PCIA said it was told Nextel and the FCC had an understanding that Nextel would surrender any frequencies the agency later found were not properly granted.
“PCIA appreciates and supports the commission’s desire to ensure that the licensing processes continue in an orderly manner. However, the public was not informed of the commission’s decision, and the public has continued to believe that the commission was carrying out its statutory mandate to review applications,” stated PCIA.
Elsewhere, a group of SMRs strongly opposed a Geotek-Hughes waiver request for 900 MHz dispatch coverage requirements.
“ARC (Alliance for Radio Competition) believes that the unconditional grant of the waiver request would disserve the public interest in rapid deployment of advanced wireless services utilizing these frequencies,” ARC told the FCC last Thursday. “Instead, an unconditional grant would perpetuate the warehousing of these frequencies and would reward Nextel Communications Inc. and the secured creditors, Hughes and Wilmington Trust, for their ill-advised business decisions.”
ARC, led by Mobex Communications Inc., and other SMRs are expected to oppose a proposed Nextel-Justice deal that lifts a 1995 Nextel antitrust consent decree five years ahead of time and lets Nextel acquire more 900 MHz SMR channels immediately.
While the proposed settlement largely nixes Nextel’s $150 million acquisition of Geotek channels for now, it does not prevent the nation’s top dispatch operator from buying the bankrupt firm’s wireless assets in a year-and-a-half.
