WASHINGTON—After complaining that a subsidiary of Nextel Communications Inc. was trying to gobble up the remaining available spectrum in the 900 MHz band, the Industrial Telecommunications Association is asking the government to lift a freeze put on 900 MHz band applications. But the association still wants the government to scrutinize the thousands of applications submitted by Nextel subsidiary ACI 900 Inc.
“ITA does not want to give the impression that it has concluded that the applications submitted by ACI 900 Inc. are consistent with Federal Communications Commission rules and policies, including those adopted in the 800 MHz rules,” said ITA. “Any application package that threatens to so greatly reduce the inventory of private-wireless channels deserves careful scrutiny to ensure that the proposed use will utilize the spectrum efficiently.”
The private wireless and critical infrastructure division of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau froze all 900 MHz applications out of a concern that Nextel may not be able to “obtain the necessary `green space’ to house some of its systems while the 800 MHz band is reconfigured to abate unacceptable interference to public safety, critical infrastructure and other `high-site’ 800 MHz systems.”
The FCC’s 800 MHz rebanding plan calls for Nextel to use its 900 MHz frequencies to maintain service. The FCC in July adopted a plan to solve the interference problem, swap some spectrum with Nextel and have Nextel pay to move other companies off the spectrum band Nextel would receive. The FCC released the text of the plan in early August.
Mark Crosby, who last week returned as ITA president and chief executive officer, said the ACI filings jumped the gun.
“It just doesn’t pass the smell test,” Crosby told RCR Wireless News. “If ITA had processed an application for 30 channels for Minot, N.D., which converts to thousands of units, hopefully the FCC would rip ITA a new one. … They deserve a level of scrutiny that anyone anywhere would receive.”
The American Mobile Telecommunications Association said freezing 900 MHz applications seemed “an overly restrictive reaction.”
“The FCC has ample tools to determine whether the applications it received meet the commission’s current rules. If they do, they should be granted. If not, the applications should be dismissed,” said AMTA Chairman Joe Vestal. AMTA “believes a more nuanced response would better serve the interests of the land-mobile industry and the public it serves without compromising Nextel’s ability to resolve the interference being caused to public safety and other 800 MHz incumbents.”
