WASHINGTON-Nextel Communications Inc. refused to say today whether it will turn down any plan proffered by the Federal Communications Commission to solve the interference problem public-safety is experiencing in the 800 MHz band if it does not include Nextel receiving 10 megahertz of spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band.
“If the FCC makes a different decision, then we will have to see if it makes us whole and what it is. We obviously believe there are essential elements in the consensus proposal. We have to be whole, if we are going to put in funding. We have to solve the interference problem,” Lawrence Krevor, Nextel vice president of government affairs, told reporters after he participated on an 800 MHz Band “Face Off” at the Private Wireless Summit sponsored by the Industrial Telecommunications Association.
During the debate, Brian Fontes, vice president of federal affairs for Cingular Wireless L.L.C. and a leading opponent of the Nextel/private wireless/public-safety proposal to shuffle the licensees at 800 MHz, asked Larry point blank whether they would walk away from the table if the 1.9 GHz spectrum was not included in any proposal by the FCC, but he did not get a direct answer.
“Nextel says in their filing that if they do not get this 10 megahertz nationwide, rebanding is off the table. I don’t know why they don’t want to answer the question,” said Fontes. “I appreciate the dance around it, and I appreciate putting it in the laps of the FCC, but the fundamental question is: Is the value still on the table if you don’t get the 10 megahertz? And if you got your answer out of that-good luck!”
To sweeten the pot for the spectrum, Nextel has offered to pay $850 million to retune public safety and private wireless but doubts were raised during the debate whether that amount was adequate or whether Nextel would continue to agree to such amount if it did not receive the 1.9 GHz spectrum.
Another debate resolves around exactly how much support the consensus proposal has in the public-safety community. The Association for Public-safety Communications Officials, is on board but various public-safety agencies around the country have come out against it.
The debate is likely to continue tomorrow when FCC Chairman Michael Powell appears at the summit.
The consensus proposal, proposed by Nextel Communications Inc., private-wireless entities and some public-safety advocates, would split the 800 MHz band into two parts-one for cellularized systems and one for non-cellularized systems.
The balanced-approach proposal, sponsored by Cingular, the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, and the United Telecom Council, calls for timely resolution of current interference at the expense of the interferer, coupled with technical rules, notification and coordination procedures to prevent new interference.
