WASHINGTON—The 800 MHz Transition Administrator encouraged public-safety spectrum licensees in middle America to begin thinking about the reconfiguration process and begin preparing their requests for planning funding even though their negotiation process is not scheduled to begin until Aug.1.
The TA wants public safety in the “Wave 2 Stage 2” group—meaning licensees in Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, Wyoming and parts of Texas—to begin preparing because their deadline for requests for planning funding is also Aug. 1. This apparent scheduling nightmare was actually done on purpose so that the time that was supposed to be spent negotiating the reconfiguration was not used negotiating for planning money.
“By engaging early and completing the RFPF process now, Wave 2 Stage 2 licensees will be able to use the negotiation windows to conduct the necessary planning to complete a cost estimate for a frequency reconfiguration agreement and reach agreement with Sprint Nextel Corp.,” said Brett Haan managing director of BearingPoint, a member of the 800 MHz Transition Administrator team.
The Transition Administrator is an outside team selected by the Federal Communications Commission to manage the 800 MHz rebanding. Sprint Nextel is paying to retune public-safety and private-wireless licensees in the band.
The issue of planning funding has been bubbling under the surface of the 800 MHz rebanding process for months. Public-safety spectrum licensees say it is difficult for them to enter negotiations unless they know they will be reimbursed for their troubles. The TA recently established a fast-track option for planning funding that lets approximately half of the public-safety spectrum licensees use a streamlined, no-negotiation process for planning funding.
Sprint Nextel had no specific reaction to the TA’s encouragement, but Timothy O’Regan, a spokesman for the carrier, said the company is always willing to talk to licensees ahead of the official negotiation periods.
“When it comes to money, that is when the queue is important because that is a control on resources,” said O’Regan.
The FCC envisioned, and the TA established, a staggered negotiation and reconfiguration process with private-wireless licensees being moved first from channels 1-120 and then the National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee licensees being moved into those channels.
Voluntary negotiations for Wave 2 Stage 2 licensees will begin Aug. 1 Mandatory negotiations will begin Nov. 1. Licensees will then, if necessary, enter into the alternative dispute resolution process Feb. 1. Failing that, the FCC will step in.
