WASHINGTON-As of Thursday morning it appears that Nextel Communications Inc. has been successful in convincing a majority of the Federal Communications Commission that adopting key portions of its Consensus Plan is the best way to solve public-safety interference in the 800 MHz band.
FCC Chairman Michael Powell, through the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, presented a plan to his fellow commissioners March 9 with the hope of voting on it at the agency’s April 15 meeting. All signals now indicate that at close of business Thursday, the commission will announce that it will vote on its plan to solve the 800 MHz problem. The items would not be “sunshined” unless Powell was certain that he had a majority, and indications are that FCC Commissioners Kevin Martin and Michael Copps will vote with him.
The FCC will put the 800 MHz item on its April 15 agenda, but may pull it before the meeting, said Brian Fontes, vice president of federal relations for Cingular Wireless L.L.C.
“I predict it will be on the sunshine notice. I don’t know whether it will be on the agenda,” Fontes told the New America Foundation seminar, “Nextel’s Spectrum Windfall: Corporate Welfare or a Boon for Consumers and First Responders?”
The FCC must list its agenda items at least one week in advance of a meeting. Once an issue has been “sunshined,” outside lobbying must cease. The commission can, and does on a regular basis, pull items from the meeting agenda.
Fontes said there are too many questions that are just beginning to be explored for the FCC to make a decision in eight days.
“I will predict that there will be controversies ad nauseum as far as reimbursement,” said Fontes. “There are a host of questions that have just begun to be explored.”
The FCC could vote on the item April 15 and then not release the actual details until they have been fine-tuned during the standard editing process. It took more than three months to release the controversial ultra-wideband rules and more than six months to release the wireline competition rules.
The FCC staff recommendation reportedly closely tracks with the Consensus Plan developed by some public-safety advocacy groups, private-wireless entities and Nextel. The staff recommendation would require Nextel to pay perhaps billions more than the $850 million it said it would pay as part of the rebanding agreement. Nextel would pay all of the relocation costs plus the difference between that amount and “fair-market value” of 10 megahertz of spectrum it seeks in the 1.9 GHz band. This recommendation was delivered to the commissioners March 9. The FCC hopes to vote on rules at its April 15 meeting, but Powell told House appropriators late last month it might take a couple of months to come to resolution.
The Consensus Plan would shuffle the 800 MHz band to eliminate the current situation where public safety, private wireless, Nextel, other SMRs and cellular carriers are intermingled. In exchange for giving up spectrum in the 700 MHz, 800 MHz and 900 MHz bands and for paying to retune public safety and private wireless, Nextel has asked for 10 megahertz in the 1.9 GHz band. The staff proposal reportedly does not require Nextel to relinquish its 700 MHz and 900 MHz spectrum.
Thursday morning, Nextel’s spokeswoman, Leigh Horner, declined comment.
On the other side is the Balanced Approach Plan supported by the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association and the United Telecom Council. The Balanced Approach Plan calls for timely resolution of interference at the expense of the interferer, coupled with technical rules, notification and coordination procedures to prevent new interference.
A third idea was floated Wednesday by the New America Foundation.
The spectrum-relocation bill should be amended to include public safety so that the FCC can auction spectrum at 1.9 GHz and use the proceeds for the 800 MHz rebanding.
“The best solution is for Congress to add public safety to the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act,” said Michael Calabrese, vice president of the New America Foundation.
Calabrese believes that the focus on homeland security in the wake of Sept. 11 is “precisely the reason the FCC can turn to Congress and ask them to add public safety” to the spectrum-relocation bill.
The wireless industry has worked for years to convince Congress to pass a bill to allow the Pentagon to be reimbursed if it vacates the 1700 MHz band, so it is not pleased with the prospect of such a controversial issue being attached to it at this point.
“The Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act was negotiated among the administration, the Department of Defense and the wireless industry, and it is among the industry’s highest priorities. Attaching the controversial 800 MHz issue could delay passage of this carefully crafted bill, which we hope to see on the president’s desk soon,” said Travis Larson, CTIA spokesman.
The spectrum-relocation bill has passed the House and the Senate Commerce Committee but has been stalled over a non-related issue dealing with digital broadcast satellite spectrum.
Fontes told RCR Wireless News following the New America event that Calabrese’s proposal “was an interesting idea.”
At one point this week, the FCC was said to be considering a plan that would allow Nextel to receive spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band after its value is determined in an “auction-like mechanism,” but pro-auction advocates, including New America, do not believe that goes far enough.
Another rejected idea would have given Nextel bidding credits for the spectrum it would lose in the 800 MHz band and for paying all of the rebanding costs to participate in the 1.9 GHz auction.
The FCC has said its main goal in the 800 MHz proceeding is to help public safety, but J.H. Snider, New America senior research fellow, argued that public safety would be better served by using commercially available technologies rather than proprietary public-safety systems.
Calabrese said the New America Foundation invited both Nextel and the Association of Public-safety Communications Officials to participate, but both declined.
