WASHINGTON-“On behalf of Nextel, it is my honor to answer yes,” said Tim Donahue, chief executive officer of Nextel Communications Inc.
With that Donahue handed over an acceptance letter to Michael Powell, outgoing chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, in a press conference/photo opportunity Feb. 7.
“I had to glance at the letter and make sure we were good to go,” said Powell.
And with that, Nextel met the Feb. 7 deadline to accept the 800 MHz rebanding plan.
The FCC in July adopted a plan to solve the interference problem by swapping some spectrum with Nextel and having Nextel pay to move other companies off the spectrum band Nextel would receive. The FCC released the text of the plan in early August and made modifications to it in December.
The letter obligates Nextel to fix an interference problem public-safety was experiencing because Nextel’s systems were interleaved with public safety.
“Nextel stands shoulder to shoulder with public safety and the FCC and accepts the responsibilities, obligations, license modifications and conditions,” reads the letter. “Nextel has already begun moving forward in order to complete the reconfiguration process in accordance with FCC rules. We take the obligations and responsibilities that come along with this initiative seriously and will meet all expectations fully.”
In return for $4.8 billion in retuning costs and a payment to the U.S. Treasury, Nextel will get 10 megahertz of spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band, also known as the G block.
Powell said it “is always gratifying to untangle a knot.” To put an exclamation point on how important Powell felt about solving the 800 MHz public-safety interference problem, he said he had decided not to leave the agency until it was fixed.
Nextel also must file other documents to ensure the financial stability of the plan, including a letter from bankruptcy counsel declaring it will meet its obligations even if the company goes bust.
In December, Nextel agreed to merge with Sprint Corp. While Sprint was not a signatory to the acceptance, Robert Foosaner, Nextel chief regulatory officer and senior vice president, said, “the new company will meet all of the obligations.”
Foosaner indicated it took Nextel a while to decide whether to accept the FCC’s plan because “the FCC required more of Nextel than Nextel had indicated it was willing to do.”
Nextel’s first strategy in changing the course of the FCC’s plan was to ask for clarifications. It got some of what it wanted in December.
Fossaner said that when the rebanding is finished in about three years-with the exception of the border regions with Canada and Mexico-public safety should not experience interference from commercial systems. If they do, Foosaner said, “I think the FCC has demonstrated they will have our head.”
Mobile Relay Associates and Skitronics L.L.C. are trying to stall the process by saying that one of the members of the Transition Administrator team, BearingPoint Inc., should be removed because of its consulting relationship with Nextel.
The FCC selected a Transition Administrator to act as an independent third party. BearingPoint, law firm Squire-Sanders-Dempsey L.L.P. and Baseline Telecom Inc. comprise the team. BearingPoint told the FCC late last month, just as the Transition Administrator was completing its rebanding plan, that it has a consulting contract with Nextel.
