WASHINGTON-Some of the nation’s most populous areas, including New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, will be the first to begin the 800 MHz reconfiguration process, the 800 MHz Transition Administrator said late Monday.
The Transition Administrator has established a four-wave process with the first three waves completing the rebanding process by June 27, 2008. Formal negotiations for Wave 1 will begin June 27, 2005, and the third-wave formal negotiation process will begin no later than Jan. 3, 2006. Wave 4 is the border region, and the Transition Administrator expects this area to take longer due to necessary diplomatic negotiations that must take place with Canada and Mexico.
“We believe our plan is achievable within the timeframe set forth by the Federal Communications Commission. That is not to say that it will be easy; indeed, it will not. We are hopeful that this plan will be received by stakeholders in this spirit and with the recognition that the accomplishment of a national priority depends upon them,” said the Transition Administrator.
As part of its plan to solve public-safety interference in the 800 MHz band, the FCC selected a Transition Administrator to act as an independent third party. Consulting firm BearingPoint, law firm Squire-Sanders-Dempsey L.L.P. and Baseline Telecom Inc. comprise the team.
“The major constraining factor in the development of our plan was the inability to reconfigure most of the Canadian and Mexican border areas at the present time. To this end, we assessed each National Public-Safety Advisory Committee region on the Canadian and Mexican border and made a determination whether reconfiguration in that region outside the border area may be scheduled. This issue resulted in the separation of border NPSPAC regions in New York, Pennsylvania and California, among others, from non-border NPSPAC regions in those states,” said the Transition Administrator.
The FCC in July adopted a plan to solve the interference problem, swap some spectrum with Nextel and have Nextel pay to move other companies off the spectrum band Nextel would receive. The FCC released the text of the plan in early August and made modifications to it in December. Nextel is scheduled to decide whether to accept the plan by Feb. 7. In the interim, Nextel has agreed to a merger with Sprint Corp.
