WASHINGTON-Refuting rumors of slowing revenue growth and decreasing membership, the American Mobile Telecommunications Association said last week it is taking over the frequency coordination duties of the American Trucking Association.
“There isn’t that much money for frequency coordination. What we are adding to the party is marketing and policy … This is clearly a membership enhancer,” said AMTA President Alan R. Shark. Indeed Shark said that AMTA is having neither revenue nor membership problems.
Shark made the announcement regarding the ATA agreement at last week’s leadership conference held in Alexandria, Va. At the same time, he said AMTA is enjoying the largest revenue surplus in five years.
Further refuting the rumors of membership decline and following an announcement that Nextel Communications Inc. has rejoined the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, Shark confirmed that the enhanced specialized mobile radio operator is still an AMTA member occupying a seat on its board.
“Given what they pay in dues, it’s a bargain for them to be a member of AMTA,” said Shark.
The agreement between AMTA and ATA will be a two-step process. Step one will have AMTA acting as a subcontractor for ATA until the Federal Communications Commission approves its application to become a certified frequency coordinator. If and when it receives FCC approval, AMTA will then take over the frequency coordination duties from ATA.
Such an arrangement would seem to nullify the concerns of another frequency coordinator, Mark E. Crosby. Crosby, who is president of the Industrial Telecommunications Association, said AMTA has to go through the same process that all of the frequency advisory committees had to go through. Another frequency coordinator, Donald Vasek, echoed Crosby’s concerns.
“I will be interested in seeing what qualifications AMTA will take to the FCC,” said Vasek, director of government relations for the Personal Communications Industry Association.
Once the FCC receives what is expected to be a joint filing between ATA and AMTA to transfer coordination duties, it will be put out for notice and comment before a final decision is made.
Crosby does not believe the FCC is likely to create another frequency coordinator but Shark disagrees.
“The FCC has mandated competition. The FCC has felt that would make the coordination process better,” said Shark.
Ironically, it was this competition in the coordination business that led some of AMTA’s members last week to complain at the AMTA conference that the competition between coordinators has led to some bad coordinations where interference then occurs.
To facilitate the frequency coordination duties, AMTA has signed an agreement with Site Safe L.L.C. The agreement sets up a structure where AMTA will host a Web site for frequency coordination, all payments will be made to AMTA and AMTA will develop all policies, Shark said. “The goal is to be an active partner [with Site Safe] so that the quality is always being looked at,” he said.
In addition to AMTA, the FCC is currently looking at an informal request from the United Telecom Council to obtain frequency coordination certification for private wireless in the 800 MHz and 900 MHz bands. Comments on the UTC petition are due June 26 with replies due July 12.
