WASHINGTON-The 800 MHz rebanding process may not be going as quickly as first hoped.
The 800 MHz Transition Administrator recently told the Federal Communications Commission that there will be a significant number of incomplete agreements at the end of the negotiation process for Wave 1 licensees.
More than 1,000 agreements must be reached with Wave 1 licensees, located in Chicago, the northeastern United States, Northern California, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Colorado. To date, the TA has received 146 completed agreements.
“Sprint Nextel Corp. estimated to the TA that as many as 50 public-safety licensees, plus some additional number of non-public-safety licensees will not have entered into a Frequency Reconfiguration Agreement (FRA) by the end of the mandatory negotiation period,” the TA noted in its quarterly report. The report is the first since negotiations began in earnest in the 800 MHz reconfiguration process.
As part of its plan to solve public-safety interference in the 800 MHz band, the FCC selected an administrator to act as an independent third party. The law firm of Squire, Sanders, & Dempsey, consulting firm BearingPoint and Baseline Telecom Inc. comprise the team.
The TA established a four-wave process. The first three waves should be finished with rebanding by June 27, 2008. Formal negotiations for Wave 1 began June 27. The third-wave formal negotiation process is set to begin no later than Jan. 3. Wave 4 is the border region, and the TA expects this area to take longer due to necessary diplomatic negotiations that must take place with Canada and Mexico.
Sprint Nextel must negotiate an FRA with each licensee, which must be approved by the TA. If mandatory negotiations are still going on in Wave 1 after Dec. 27, the TA will step in to mediate. The matter will go to the FCC if those negotiations are unsuccessful.
The apparent delay in negotiations for the first wave could have a potential ripple effect through the whole process, said Brett Haan, managing director of BearingPoint.
The public-safety community is also concerned about how long negotiations may take. “We are concerned too about the slow process. It is not going as quickly as possible as it needs to get this done,” said Robert Gurss, Washington counsel for the Association of Public-safety Communications Officials.
Sprint Nextel is more optimistic. “Sprint Nextel remains thoroughly committed to reconfiguring the 800 MHz spectrum in order to eliminate interference to public-safety radios. Sprint Nextel has devoted significant resources to getting this done and we’re pleased with the progress we have made with Wave 1 public-safety and private-wireless licensees in reaching relocation agreements. Sprint Nextel is committed to working with all licensees to complete agreements during the mandatory negotiation phase,” said Tim O’Regan, Sprint Nextel spokesman.
The FCC was unavailable for comment.
One of the reasons for the delay appears to be the turtle-pace of negotiations regarding public-safety’s request that Sprint Nextel reimburse public-safety licensees for planning. “We are particularly concerned with the request for planning funding,” said Gurss. “The planning funding needs to happen before the planning can begin and before the retuning can begin.”
Gurss added that the planning funding is necessary for larger public-safety systems. “Smaller systems, especially non-public safety, can just be reimbursed at the end of the process,” said Gurss.
At least one public-safety entity said the process is picking up and credited the TA.
“I am a little behind, but that has been mitigated some by the TA’s educational processes,” said David Warner, telecommunications engineer with the Virginia Information Technologies Agency. “Milestones have been reached this week. We should be pretty close to on target.”
Warner said he has been pleased with the process but cautioned that affected licensees should be proactive.
“I have been very happy with the process. … (Licensees) have to make sure they have someone that keeps up with the TA’s Web site because changes are constantly being made,” said Warner.
