The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Friday upheld the Federal Communications Commission’s 2004 decision to reconfigure the 800 MHz band to fix interference caused by then-Nextel Communications Inc. to public-safety radio systems in the same frequency range.
Mobile Relay Associates and Skitronics L.L.C. had challenged the FCC ruling.
The 800 MHz rebanding plan required Nextel, now part of Sprint Nextel Corp., to spend $4.8 billion in retuning costs and to make a payment to the U.S. Treasury. As part of the 800 MHz band realignment, Sprint Nextel receives 10 megahertz of spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band.
