WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission received some unsolicited advice from 23 members of Congress on Thursday on what not to do to solve the public-safety interference problem in the 800 MHz band.
“We are troubled by reports that the FCC may address interference problems in a manner that results in an economic windfall to one company and that would violate the competitive bidding requirements of the Communications Act,” wrote the members of Congress, all of whom are members of the House Commerce Committee. “The commission must address interference to public-safety systems in the 800 MHz band as quickly as possible. The FCC should reband, but should keep all existing 800 MHz licensees within the band rather than give one or more entities spectrum outside of the 800 MHz band without conducting an auction.”
The signatories represent a cross-section of the country and the House Commerce Committee, but the letter was not signed by any of the House Commerce Committee leadership and still represents less than half of the opinion of the members of the committee from both parties.
There are two differing plans to solve the public-safety interference problem in the 800 MHz band that was created because public-safety licensees, private-wireless licensees, enhanced SMR licensees-most notably Nextel Communications Inc., and cellular licensees were mixed together.
The Consensus Plan would shuffle the 800 MHz band to eliminate the current situation. Nextel has said that $850 million will be sufficient to pay for the necessary retuning of public-safety and private-wireless radios. Nextel said it would deposit $100 million in an escrow account and secure irrevocable lines of credit for the remaining $750 million.
In exchange for giving up spectrum in the 700, 800 and 900 MHz bands and for paying to retune public safety and private wireless, Nextel has asked for 10 megahertz in the 1.9 GHz band.
RCR Wireless News first reported Oct. 27 that FCC staff is contemplating a proposal that would give Nextel no more than 6 megahertz of spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band.
The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association and the United Telecom Council favor the Balanced Approach Plan which calls for timely resolution of current interference at the expense of the interferor, coupled with technical rules, notification and coordination procedures to prevent new interference.
The letter could delay the FCC’s decision-making process. “Please respond to our questions no later than March 15. We expect the commission to take no action on this proceeding until the FCC has responded to our questions and we have had the opportunity to evaluate the responses,” reads the letter.
The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau is drafting a solution to be presented to the commissioners in the coming weeks with a decision expected in April, said WTB Chief John Muleta on Monday.
