WASHINGTON-The First Response Coalition seized the heightened terror alerts in New York and Washington and the recently released 9/11 Commission report to once again urge lawmakers to overturn the Federal Communication Commission’s recently adopted decision on how to solve public-safety interference in the 800 MHz band.
“We believe that recent developments make an extremely powerful case for immediate hearings on the interoperability crisis and the overturning of the FCC/Nextel Communications Inc. spectrum grab, which was carried out in violation of the intent of Congress,” wrote Gene Stilp, coordinator of the First Response Coalition, in a letter sent to the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, the House Government Reform Committee and the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.
The FCC voted unanimously last month to reconfigure the 800 MHz band to solve public-safety interference. As part of the plan, Nextel will pay nearly $5 billion in both cash and spectrum to gain access to spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band and give up spectrum in the 800 and 700 MHz bands and receive spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band. It is unclear whether Nextel will accept the plan because the company has refused to comment until the full text is released. Many expect the FCC to release the text early next week at the annual meeting of the Association of Public-safety Communications Officials in Montreal. The plan must then survive an expected legal challenge either by Nextel if it chooses to reject the plan or one of Nextel’s critics.
One of Nextel’s critics, the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, seems to have quietly decided to back down from its opposition.
“CTIA, an association which represents the cellular industry and an opponent of the Consensus Plan, has written to the International Association of Fire Chiefs stating that since the FCC has spoken it will now work with IAFC and other public-safety organizations to remedy the interference as quickly as possible,” said IAFC in a press release Tuesday.
Neither CTIA nor IAFC would release the letter.
“We are not going to release the letter at this time, but I have seen the press release and would agree with the way they have categorized the correspondence. It does not mean that we support the Consensus Plan, but rather, we acknowledge that the FCC did not adopt our proposal to solve the interference issue. We continue to recognize the most critical element is to rectify the interference issue as expeditiously as possible,” said John Walls, CTIA vice president of public affairs. “We still reserve comment on the FCC order until we see the document, but we certainly agree with the principle that the most important component of this discussion is public safety’s needs and implementation of the most viable and expedient solution.”
The Consensus Plan was the proposal put forward by Nextel, some public-safety advocates and private wireless. The FCC adopted significant portions of the plan but has made some changes, including requiring Nextel to pay money into the treasury if the value of the spectrum it returns and relocation expenses do not equal $4.8 billion.
