DENVER-Nextel Communications Inc.’s Chairman Morgan O’Brien stressed there may not be time to consider every possible alternative to solving the complicated 800 MHz interference issue.
At a conference here last week, O’Brien compared a potential public-safety emergency to the Mount Vesuvius natural disaster that devastated the city of Pompeii in 79 A.D., adding that he learned on a recent vacation that not every resident of Pompeii was killed in the disaster, just those that stayed in the city because they believed they had time to develop a plan to protect themselves.
Nextel has been holding conferences in cities around the country to enhance its dialogue with the public-safety sector and to promote its Consensus Plan to provide interoperability solutions and to minimize interference for law enforcement agencies.
The Nextel-proposed Consensus Plan realigns the 800 MHz band to solve the interference issue, which O’Brien admitted may not be a complete solution to the problem, but is a giant step in the right direction. Private-wireless entities and some public-safety advocates are on board with Nextel in the Consensus Plan idea.
Those opposed to the Consensus Plan, including the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, the United Telecom Council, which represents utilities, and individual wireless carriers, want to rely on best practices to solve interference problems where they occur. Motorola Inc. and others are looking at technical solutions at the behest of the Federal Communications Commission. O’Brien said industry does not have the resources to continue to apply solutions on a case-by-case basis.
