WASHINGTON-EF Johnson Inc. protested Motorola Inc.’s proposal to allow 800 MHz licensees to replace their radios before they complete rebanding negotiations with Sprint Nextel Corp. and the 800 MHz Transition Administrator.
The Motorola Plan is “an ill-conceived and anti-competitive maneuver,” said Robert Donohoo, EF Johnson vice president and general counsel. “The changes suggested by Motorola are not needed to resolve delays and instead would function primarily as anti-competitive by reducing opportunities for public-safety entities to replace Motorola radios with those of other qualified manufacturers. Motorola is asking the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau for a ruling that would unfairly assist Motorola in using the 800 MHz reconfiguration process as an opportunity to capture market share while simultaneously reducing options available for reconfiguring licensees.”
In early July, Motorola suggested that since it has reached agreement with Sprint Nextel and the Transition Administrator regarding which radios need to be replaced and/or have their software modified and the cost of those changes, that Motorola could proceed to replace or modify the radios in question while negotiations were taking place-rather than waiting for each licensee to complete the negotiation process, Motorola said it believed the wireless bureau had the authority to agree to the change, but acknowledged it would require the buy in of other manufacturers. EF Johnson is not biting.
Motorola believes that more than 1.2 million public-safety radios must be replaced or modified. “But as of July 6, Motorola has yet to ship a single replacement radio or undertake a single software modification,” said Steve Sharkey, Motorola’s director of spectrum and standards strategy. “The simple fact is that a huge backlog of system modifications is building that cannot be completed in a timely manner if we continue on this present course.”
The 800 MHz band is being reconfigured from slices of various types of licenses-public safety, enhanced specialized mobile radio and private wireless-to three distinct sections: public safety, cellular and non-cellular.
