WASHINGTON-A Bush administration report due out shortly could hurt Nextel Communications Inc.’s campaign to win government approval of a controversial spectrum realignment plan designed to resolve commercial wireless interference to public safety and business radio systems, a proposal major U.S. industry sectors blasted last week.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a Commerce Department unit that advises the White House on telecom policy and manages federal government spectrum, is expected in a congressionally mandated report to document use of private wireless spectrum by the nation’s energy, water and railroad services. The report could be released as early as Wednesday or Thursday, according to sources.
Public utilities, railroads and other critical infrastructure industries, which use private wireless spectrum for internal communications, have received heightened attention from the White House in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The industry sectors have not received new radio spectrum from the federal government since the mid-1980s. Private wireless spectrum requirements of backbone U.S. industries-including water, electrical and gas utilities, railroads, pipelines, petroleum and chemical industries, airlines, auto manufacturers, package delivery carriers and agriculture firms-fell virtually off the radar screen after Congress authorized spectrum auctions in 1993.
The sale of commercial spectrum to paging, mobile-phone carriers and others raised billions of dollars for the U.S. Treasury, much to the delight of White House and congressional number crunchers. As such, there has been little incentive to give spectrum to private wireless licensees, which are not subject to the auction law.
While it is not known what recommendations, if any, the Bush administration will make, the NTIA report could raise the visibility of private wireless spectrum use at a time when national security is the nation’s top priority. That alone could be significant as the Federal Communications Commission crafts a proposal based on Nextel’s white paper. The agency is expected to launch a rulemaking within weeks.
Nextel has a strong card to play in this game. Its blueprint for resolving interference to 800 MHz public-safety systems and improving radio communications interoperability for firefighters, police and medical personnel also plays well in the current political environment. Moreover, Nextel also is giving the FCC a way out of a dilemma created by the agency by licensing 800 MHz commercial wireless and public-safety systems so close together.
Federal regulators have worked with Nextel and public-safety agencies in recent years to curb interference to 800 MHz public-safety communications, but fixes (such as the creation of a best practices guide and APCO’s Project 39) have failed to do the job.
Under the proposal, Nextel would exchange its four megahertz in the 700 MHz band, eight megahertz of dispatch radio spectrum in the lower, noncontiguous 800 MHz band and four megahertz in the 900 MHz band for six megahertz in the upper 800 MHz band and 10 megahertz in the 2.1 GHz band.
In addition to making contiguous spectrum available for public safety, Nextel has promised to contribute $500 million to relocate 800 MHz public-safety licensees to the 700 MHz band. But Nextel said it expects other dispatch radio and cellular operators to chip in since they too contribute to electromagnetic disruption of public-safety systems. The mobile-phone industry already has signaled it will try to defeat the Nextel plan.
Public-safety communications organizations told the FCC last month their support for the Nextel plan is contingent on the availability adequate funds to cover relocation costs. The groups also said there should not be an arbitrary funding cap.
Other wireless licensees that would be forced to relocate to other frequencies without compensation under the Nextel plan, vigorously oppose it. It has been suggested the plan mostly benefits spectrum-squeezed and heavily leveraged Nextel, which needs a buyer, and Craig McCaw, a key investor in Nextel and New ICO. New ICO has petitioned the FCC to use satellite spectrum in the 2.1 GHz band for terrestrial cellular use. The mobile-phone industry opposes that idea, and believes financially troubled mobile satellite licensees-like New ICO-should return their spectrum so that it can be used for third-generation wireless systems.
“FCC adoption of the proposals contained in the Nextel white paper would be an unmitigated disaster from an operational and financial standpoint for America’s industrial, transportation and utility sectors,” stated a coalition of industry groups in a Dec. 20 letter to Powell.
The organizations said there are options other than the Nextel plan to address public-safety radio interference.
The letter was signed by representatives of the American Association of Railroads, Aeronautical Radio Inc., the American Petroleum Institute, Forest Industries Telecommunications, the Industrial Telecommunications Association, the Manufacturers Radio Frequency Advisory Committee and the United Telecom Council.
The groups offered three examples about how U.S. firms would be hurt by the Nextel plan.
c Federal Express Corp., whose radio systems support 40,000 mobile units with approximately 750 base stations, said it would be forced to absorb at least $100 million for the cost of migrating internal communications systems to the 700 MHz band.
c Arinc estimates it would have to pay more than $160 million to relocate 800 MHz radio systems at airports across the country to other frequencies.
c American Electric Power Co., which serves 11 states and operates one of the largest $800 private radio systems in the country, said it has invested $100 million in communications that would be jeopardized by the Nextel plan.
“We think quick action is needed and the issues being raised can get fleshed out in a public rulemaking,” said Lawrence Krevor, vice president of government affairs at Nextel.
