WASHINGTON-Nextel Communications Inc.’s offer to give more spectrum to the government to solve public-safety interference at 800 MHz has brought to light a lesser-known class of licensees that are hopping mad.
These licensees are against the entire re-banding proposal. But if the re-banding process moves forward, one company wants to be treated the same as Nextel and get spectrum at 1.9 GHz. Another competitor wants to be able to offer the same services as Nextel.
“Nextel’s most recent filing only partially recognizes the spectrum rights of non-Nextel economic area licensees. As such, it purports to give back only some of their purchased spectrum rights the Consensus Plan parties previously proposed to transfer to Nextel,” said Charles “Matt” Austin, president of Preferred Communication Systems Inc. Nextel needs to recognize “that it cannot achieve its objectives in this proceeding without affording all EA licensees equal treatment including participation in the allocation by the FCC of 1.9 GHz band spectrum.”
Preferred is part of the small slice of licensees in the 800 MHz band-sans the A-block cellular operators-that have consistently fought the Consensus Plan because they felt they were getting a raw deal by being forced into the non-cellular block. This block would not allow them to build systems that use low-site systems.
Nextel largely dismisses these entities for two reasons. The first is that its affiliate, Nextel Partners, is one of the other licensees affected. Also, most of the others, including Preferred, have not built out yet.
“This is spectrum that Nextel absolutely dominates,” said Lawrence Krevor, Nextel vice president of government affairs. “This is spectrum we could go put broadband on if we wanted to.”
But Nextel is worried about one non-Nextel EA: SouthernLinc. “The only real problem is SouthernLinc since SouthernLinc got most of its channels from cobbling together business utility site-by-site channels,” said Krevor.
SouthernLinc says the reason Nextel is worried is “the only place where they compete head-to-head with the same technology-iDEN-is in the southeast with SouthernLinc.”
SouthernLinc has tried to convince the FCC to treat it the same as Nextel. “I want my spectrum to look like and be used just like Nextel. What they are trying to do is make me a second-class citizen and not be able to use the spectrum in the same way,” said Bob Dawson, president and chief executive officer of SouthernLinc.
The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau’s staff proposal, delivered in March, gave SouthernLinc the same rights as Nextel, but did not give those rights to Preferred because it has not built out a system.
We tried to “devise a way of treating similarly situated licensees equitably and doing spectrum management for the future,” said John Muleta, wireless bureau chief. “You don’t want people who are clearly on the path to low-site on the wrong side of the spectrum line for the long term.”
Nextel ran into this buzz saw when it met with the FCC’s chief of staff, Bryan Tramont, to offer additional spectrum to win FCC approval of the Consensus Plan.
Regulators appeared to be leaning toward a proposal to re-band the spectrum, but give Nextel spectrum at 2.1 GHz instead of the 1.9 GHz spectrum Nextel wants. Nextel said it wont’ accept the 2.1 GHz spectrum.
Nextel offered an additional two megahertz and the restricted use of one megahertz of spectrum in the 800 MHz band. Nextel said the additional spectrum brings its total financial commitment to nearly $5.16 billion.
“The additional two megahertz will provide 40 more 800 MHz public-safety communications channels in markets throughout the nation. This additional spectrum provides capacity for thousands of additional mobile units in communities where public-safety systems face serious capacity constraints. It also provides the essential spectrum access necessary to create the interoperable communications networks essential for public-safety officials to meet their expanded homeland-security responsibilities,” said Krevor.
The concerns of the non-Nextel EA community have been largely ignored as the wireless industry took for granted that the 800 MHz band would be re-tuned in a fashion that at least somewhat resembled the Consensus Plan. The question causing much rhetoric has been the value of what, if any, replacement spectrum Nextel would receive.
Nextel wants spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band while its competitors, led by Verizon Wireless and the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, want the FCC to give Nextel spectrum in the 2.1 GHz band.
Verizon Wireless did not let Nextel’s latest offer go unnoticed.
“In an ironic twist, Nextel is not facing regulatory punishment for causing interference to our nation’s first responders, but actually offering specific and increasingly greedy proposals as to how much the private company should be rewarded for agreeing to eliminate the dangerous situation Nextel customers can cause every time they use the company’s service,” said Verizon Wireless.
Nextel was having none of that. “While they put out disingenuous, purely inflammatory rhetoric, we are trying to solve a real problem. They continue to talk, and we continue to act,” said Leigh Horner, Nextel director of policy communications.
