WASHINGTON–Don’t blame the public-safety community if the 800 MHz reconfiguration process is not going smoothly, said Wanda McCarley, president of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials. McCarley’s assertion follows a report that Sprint Nextel Corp. wants to extend the rebanding process by two years.
“Public-safety agencies and organizations across the nation have been working to address this issue from the beginning. Nobody understands the complexity of the public-safety systems and the challenges of rebanding better than the agencies operating those systems,” said McCarley. “Public-safety agencies have watched their colleagues spend their time and money going through these initial steps and are aware of the great difficulties they have experienced. It is certainly not the complexity of the rebanding that gives them pause, but the response from Sprint Nextel.”
Sprint Nextel is paying to retune public-safety and private-wireless licensees in the band because of interference issues.
Sprint Nextel did not respond to the report of it wanting a delay instead it reiterated its commitment to public safety and said there were problems with the current schedule.
“Our commitment to eliminating interference to public safety at 800 MHz is unwavering and we will fulfill our responsibilities in this project,” said Sprint Nextel in a statement. “All stakeholders must continue working cooperatively to establish procedures for the detailed planning necessary to identify and maintain these essential mutual-assistance relationships.”
According to an interview reported by Communications Daily, Robert Foosaner, Sprint Nextel senior vice president and chief regulatory officer, seemed to put the blame on public safety. He said that more than half of the public-safety agencies in the 800 MHz band have not reached planning-funding agreements–a necessary step in the rebanding process.
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 800 MHz Transition Administrator 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.
The rebanding process is being managed by the 800 MHz Transition Administrator. The Transition Administrator is an outside team selected by the Federal Communications Commission.
This is not the first time Sprint Nextel has tried to delay the process. The FCC has already rejected a proposal for a one-year delay. As it stands today the reconfiguration process is scheduled to be completed by June 27, 2008, but there does not appear to be any penalties if this date slips.
“It is important to emphasize that the freeze suggested by Sprint Nextel has not altered the current schedule that exists to alleviate the problem of interference.–As such, Wave 1 Stage 2 licensees who have not reached an agreement will enter mediation with Sprint Nextel on Oct. 31, 2006, as part of the TA’s Alternative Dispute Resolution process.–The TA has been working all stakeholders (public safety, licensees, vendors and Sprint Nextel) to prepare for this mediation. We have incorporated public-safety views and the TA mediation team understands and appreciates the complexities of public-safety systems,” said the TA in a statement. “To date the ADR process has been successful at resolving disagreement, with only six cases referred to the FCC out of over 400 mediation cases.”
The FCC envisioned, and the TA established, a staggered negotiation and reconfiguration process for Sprint Nextel’s rebanding. Under the plan, private-wireless licensees were to be moved first from channels 1-120, and then the National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee licensees were to be moved into those channels.
