WASHINGTON—Don’t blame the public-safety community if the 800 MHz reconfiguration process is not going smoothly, said Wanda McCarley, president of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials. McCarley’s assertion follows a report that Sprint Nextel Corp. wants to extend the rebanding process by two years.
“Public-safety agencies and organizations across the nation have been working to address this issue from the beginning. Nobody understands the complexity of the public-safety systems and the challenges of rebanding better than the agencies operating those systems,” said McCarley. “Public-safety agencies have watched their colleagues spend their time and money going through these initial steps and are aware of the great difficulties they have experienced. It is certainly not the complexity of the rebanding that gives them pause, but the response from Sprint Nextel.”
Sprint Nextel is paying to retune public-safety and private-wireless licensees in the band because of interference issues. The company issued a lengthy statement about the situation, which read in part:
“Sprint Nextel continues to accept responsibility for funding the retuning of public safety and other 800 MHz incumbent licensees to reconfigure the band to eliminate interference to public safety communications systems. … Our commitment to eliminating interference to public safety at 800 MHz is unwavering, and we will fulfill our responsibilities in this project. Members of the public safety community and their leadership have been working hard toward this goal and we will continue collaborating with them until the last radio is retuned.
“800 MHz Reconfiguration is divided into two phases: first clearing incumbents from Channels 1-120; and second, moving all public safety NPSPAC channel incumbents to Channels 1-120. All stakeholders are making very good progress with retuning Phase I incumbents—primarily private systems and SMR operators—on a one-by-one basis. Sprint Nextel anticipates meeting, if not exceeding, the FCC’s 18 month progress benchmark of retuning all incumbents from the 1-120 channel block in at least 20 NPSPAC Regions. Phase I is a less complicated process than Phase II.
“Progress has been slower and more challenging with Phase II. Phase II involves retuning public safety licensees only and includes the largest and most complex public safety communications systems in the nation. … If public safety systems are not fully coordinated throughout retuning, the result could severely disrupt the very communications capabilities this proceeding is intended to protect. All of the parties are working very hard, but the process has been more arduous than originally contemplated by all.
“Considering these extensive communications relationships are critical to public safety, all stakeholders must continue working cooperatively to establish procedures for the detailed planning necessary to identify and maintain these essential mutual assistance relationships. A dialogue toward this end began at the APCO conference last month and we look forward to continuing this conversation with all parties. Addressing shortcomings in the current reconfiguration plan will benefit public safety officials and help to alleviate the difficulties that many incumbents are encountering in planning for retuning under the existing process.”
This is not the first time Sprint Nextel has tried to delay the process. The Federal Communications Commission has already rejected a proposal for a one-year delay. As it stands today the reconfiguration process is scheduled to be completed by June 27, 2008, but there do not appear to be any penalties if this date slips.
“It is important to emphasize that the freeze suggested by Sprint Nextel has not altered the current schedule that exists to alleviate the problem of interference. As such, Wave 1 Stage 2 licensees who have not reached an agreement will enter mediation with Sprint Nextel on Oct. 31, 2006, as part of the TA’s Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process. The TA has been working all stakeholders (public safety, licensees, vendors and Sprint Nextel) to prepare for this mediation. We have incorporated public-safety views and the TA mediation team understands and appreciates the complexities of public-safety systems,” said the TA in a statement. “To date the ADR process has been successful at resolving disagreement, with only eight cases pending for FCC review out of over 470 mediation cases to date.”
The FCC envisioned, and the TA established, a staggered negotiation and reconfiguration process for Sprint Nextel’s rebanding. Under the plan, private-wireless licensees were to be moved first from channels 1-120, and then the National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee licensees were to be moved into those channels.
