WASHINGTON-The board of directors of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association on Wednesday voted to join a coalition that supports technical solutions to solving the public-safety interference problem in the 800 MHz band.
“The board voted to support the coalition filing on Wednesday. How and when that will manifest itself has yet to be determined,” said CTIA spokesman Travis Larson.
CTIA was noticeably absent from a filing made late last month that advocated a technical solution to the public-safety interference problem.
Apparently, Tim Donahue, president and chief executive officer of Nextel Communications Inc., called for a vote on the coalition proposal. Donahue gave up the gavel as chairman of the CTIA board at Wednesday’s meeting.
Nextel supports a plan that would split the 800 MHz band into two parts-one for cellularized systems and one for non-cellularized systems. The most controversial aspect of the plan is that Nextel would receive 10 megahertz of spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band (1910-1915/1990-1995 MHz).
The coalition proposal, which industry sources said was being led by CTIA, urged the Federal Communications Commission to rely on best practices to solve the interference problems where they occur.
The coalition proposal is also supported by the United Telecom Council, which represents utility communication systems.
Also, the Private Wireless Coalition, which along with Nextel is supporting a rebanding plan for the 800 MHz band, released a statement on Wednesday saying that a technical solution should be seen as a complement, not a replacement for its plan.
“The PWC has endorsed the consensus plan because it offers a technical answer, a funding mechanism and a detailed implementation roadmap that will permit the [FCC] to reach its objectives,” said the PWC.
