NEXTEL TO FULLY ADDRESS PRIVATE WIRELESS RETUNING AT 800 MHZ

In keynote, FCC Comr. Abernathy said concerns over how plan would be funded have been among issues she has heard in ex parte meetings. “I've been hearing from a lot of opponents of the consensus plan that the plan will impose significant costs in terms of retuning or rebanding,” she said. “How should the FCC address these concerns?” Backers of compromise plan, including public safety, private wireless groups and Nextel, told FCC recently they had missed self- imposed Oct. 23 deadline for filling in details on how proposal would be funded. Under consensus plan submitted in Aug., backers revised spectrum swap proposal to alleviate public safety interference at 800 MHz. Original Nextel plan would have provided it with 10 MHz in mobile satellite service (MSS) band at 2.1 GHz in exchange for spectrum it was giving up elsewhere to reconfigure 700, 800 and 900 MHz bands. Revised compromise would take that replacement spectrum from 5 MHz of unlicensed PCS spectrum at 1.9 GHz and another 5 MHz of reserve MSS spectrum. Foosaner said that under that plan, more than 70% of existing private wireless licensees wouldn’t move at all. He said other 30% would move within 800 MHz “and within spectrum that we believe that 98 to 99% of equipment could be retuned to.” Nextel would give up 700 MHz spectrum to public safety users and private wireless users would gain access to increased block of 900 MHz spectrum if they choose to relocate from 800 MHz, he said.

Foosaner told annual ITA conference in Washington that meetings are set this week with public safety community to hone in on final figures for relocation costs. Nextel plans to completely address retuning costs for private wireless, although Foosaner repeatedly declined to discuss dollar figure carrier would be willing to pay, saying that was decision left to carrier’s board. Meetings also are set for this week with private wireless interests, with independent assessments of Nextel and those carriers coming closer to alignment, he said. “I believe we will reach an accommodation on the number and then Nextel will have to make a decision,” he said.

Abernathy said FCC awaited supplemental filing from coalition to fill in details such as remaining funding issues on plan. “Unfortunately, as a result of this development, it may take us additional time to resolve these issues,” she said. “At the same time, however, we recognize the importance of solving interference to public safety. It is one of our highest priorities.”

Concerns Abernathy said emerged over plan in ex parte meetings included: (1) Questions over “scale and scope” of alleged interference to public safety operations at 800 MHz. “Our engineers tell me that there are very real problems, but many parties coming in to meet with me also argue that the extent of the interference is less pervasive in certain parts of the band or that only certain types of licensees are causing the interference.” She stressed need to find way to quantify problem. (2) Inconsistencies over existing agreements with Canada and Mexico, which would be affected by how all of plans on table would affect border regions. (3) Allegations that rebanding alone wouldn’t solve interference snafus. Abernathy questioned whether there complementary technical measures were needed. Original notice in proceeding solicited feedback on whether receiver standards could help fix interference problem. (4) Proposal to provide Nextel with spectrum in other bands. (5) Funding.

Foosaner said ultimate decisions on Nextel’s financial commitment rested with board of carrier, which is publicly traded. But he said cost estimates between private wireless community and Nextel now were as close as 1%. Among concerns raised by CTIA and others over consensus plan is prime spectrum in MSS band that Nextel would receive in exchange for relinquishing capacity at 800 MHz, where channels have been interleaved with other users. For example, CTIA has pointed out that other carriers paid close to $1.3 billion for 10 MHz of comparable spectrum in A and B blocks. Foosaner and others said some of harder core opposition involved competitors with which disagreements are unbridgeable. “Are Nextel competitors ever going to agree to it? No,” he said. “Are they ever going to agree to anything? No.”

Public safety operators aren’t looking to reap benefits beyond reimbursement for relocation costs under plan, said Washington attorney Robert Gurss, counsel for Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO). “We are looking to address the interference problem without imposing costs on taxpayers,” he said. Discussions are still continuing on full cost estimates, Gurss said. “We would far prefer not to have a cap at all, except for specific guidelines as to what’s paid for and what’s not paid for,” he said. Among issues increasingly clear to public safety community is that “the problem is a lot more pervasive and there is a lot of interference that has been discovered yet,” he said.

Washington attorney Alan Tilles, representing several private wireless members of coalition, stressed that revised plan now before FCC would cover reimbursement for 30% of private wireless carriers that would move under proposed spectrum swap. That would mean full funding for private wireless carriers that would move “unless Nextel elects not to do that, in which case the rest of the private wireless coalition will walk,” Tilles said. “Unless that move is fully funded, there is no consensus program.” One point of supplemental filing was to get input from “naysayers” to plan, Tilles said. “I wanted to make it [plan] as bulletproof as possible,” he said. “We all did.” One issue addressed was adoption of “teeth” to address interference when it occurred, issue raised by United Telecom Council, he said. “Developing those technical rules has been very complicated and lengthy,” he said. “So that has held things up.”

Foosaner said one factor that had contributed to increased interference at 800 MHz in recent years was zoning. While zoning boards prefer lower sites under tower-permitting decisions, lower sites pose greater risk of interfering with high-power, high sites of public safety, he said. On funding issue, he stressed that cost Nextel would bear under plan was “substantial” because it would come on top of $2 billion that company spent acquiring spectrum that it would turn back under swap.

On importance of 1.9 GHz spectrum being part of exchange, Foosaner rallied against concerns raised by other wireless carriers. “What’s interesting is that other parties that have caused interference are saying ‘no mas,’ fix the problem, make it disappear, incur the costs but Nextel don’t get that spectrum,” he said.

Abernathy reiterated stance she has taken publicly on 800 MHz proceeding -- that she was “skeptical” of any proposal that required imposition of significant costs on any particular group of licensees. She also reiterated that she was “reluctant” to solve 800 MHz interference problems by moving parties into multitude of other bands. She said she would like to see potential fixes that addressed interference issues in that band by keeping solutions at 800 MHz. “Nonetheless, I recognize that this is a difficult problem that will require creative solutions,” she said.