CTIA Conference Notebook...

Nextel has the spectrum “to make sure everybody is whole today” in virtually every market involving border areas that would be affected by a plan to fix public safety interference at 800 MHz, said Nextel Senior Vp-Chief Regulatory Officer Bob Foosaner. On the sidelines of the CTIA show, he said San Diego is a challenging market because peaks surround the city. “We have to work closely with the public safety community in San Diego to manage the usage of the peaks,” Foosaner said. “We believe it’s manageable. We've talked to them on a fairly regular basis and we are developing a plan directly with them,” he said of the San Diego public safety community. The question of how to coordinate 800 MHz spectrum as part of rebanding along border areas between the U.S. and Canada and the U.S. and Mexico has arisen during the 800 MHz proceeding. Nextel, the Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials and others have backed a plan that would entail rebanding parts of 700, 800 and 900 MHz and 1.9 GHz. A draft proposal circulating on the 8th floor doesn’t involve the 700 and 900 MHz band, but would give Nextel 10 MHz at 1.9 GHz, subtracting from the value of that spectrum the cost of retuning incumbents at 800 MHz (CD March 11 p1). Under the consensus plan proposed to the FCC, spectrum realignments that affected areas along the Mexican and Canadian borders with the U.S. were designed so that no incumbent would have a net spectrum loss while separating public safety and cellular operations at 800 MHz. The plan as proposed to the FCC included contingencies such as compliance with international treaties. Foosaner said backers of the consensus plan believe it would be beneficial for the U.S. to use the model along the border that cellular licensees have, “where the licensees across borders coordinate and everybody has access to all the spectrum.” Foosaner said: “It’s doable.” Asked about the FCC’s consideration of a plan that wouldn’t include 700 and 900 MHz as part of rebanding, Foosaner said that even if that spectrum weren’t part of the mix, “we're contributing more than the reasonable value of 1.9 [GHz].” He said that from a legal perspective, the FCC has the flexibility to do a license modification if a public interest finding is made. “Remedying interference to first responders, getting additional spectrum to first responders and having the entire cost underwritten by a company has got to be in the public interest,” Foosaner said. In other areas, the retuning rules that are part of the consensus plan give important enforcement “teeth” to the Commission in dealing with licensee cooperation, he said. “If they [the rules] don’t have teeth, they could undercut the entire retuning,” he said. “One, 2 or 3 licensees in a major market could just stop public safety from getting remedied. To me, that’s a very significant issue. That’s fundamental to us concurring if we have that ability with anything they do.” In other retuning scenarios, the Commission has had “reasonable rules in place,” he said. The 800 MHz issue is complicated by the extent to which 55 public safety regions around the country have plans to roll out services in the NPSPAC channels in the upper part of the 800 MHz band, Foosaner said. The plans are based on region-by-region launches of allocated services. This would mean that without adequate enforcement mechanisms behind the FCC’s retuning rules, one licensee in one of these regions could create problems if it refused to move, he said. -- MG