WASHINGTON-A request by Nextel Communications Inc. that it be granted a waiver to use frequencies close to the Canadian border on a secondary basis should be denied, said Chadmoore Wireless Group Inc.
“Grant of the rule waiver for 335 applications is tantamount to committing most of the available frequencies in the Detroit area … While Nextel may hold numerous licenses authorizing it to use channels in the Detroit-Windsor area, it certainly is not entitled to exclusive use of currently non-licensed spectrum which would be the result of grant of this request,” said Chadmoore.
Last November, Nextel filed 335 applications with the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau to operate stations in the Detroit-Cleveland area on a secondary basis. Additionally, Nextel sought a waiver to use 64 Canadian channels on a secondary basis.
Nextel has reached a sharing agreement with Clearnet, Inc., a Canadian licensee which would allow each company to share 64 channels on both sides of the border (for a total of 128 channels) as a secondary user. These channels are not usually available for assignment on any basis due to an international treaty with Canada.
Chadmoore was strident in its comments urging the Federal Communications Commission to deny the Nextel request saying that granting the request would be rule making by waiver.
“Nextel’s request is a thinly disguised attempt to circumvent the [wireless bureau’s] previous decision and the [FCC’s] rules and regulations … Grant of Nextel’s request would be equivalent to ruling by waiver and affording a competitive advantage to Nextel by providing an opportunity not available to other [specialized mobile radio] licensees,” said Chadmoore.
Consumers Energy Co., the largest utility in Michigan serving 2.3 million people, asked the FCC to protect it from interference if it granted the Nextel waiver.
“In light of the critical utility functions supported by Consumer’s frequencies, the FCC must ensure that those operations are protected from harmful interference that might arise from subsequent co-channel licensing, as proposed by Nextel,” said Consumers.
Consumers is constructing an 800 MHz band land mobile radio system that will have more than 3,200 mobile, portable and control units and more than 65 base station sites.
