The United Telecom Council (UTC) asked the FCC to revisit its dec...

for critical infrastructure licensees, many of which rely on this frequency band for private, internal mission-critical communications,” UTC said. It said the freeze “halts long-planned and much-needed expansions of existing communications systems into new areas, such as adding new sites to provide communications coverage where electrical and gas infrastructure has been extended to provide basic services to consumers and businesses in growth areas.” UTC also said it was concerned about the rationale for the freeze. The group said the FCC announced the freeze to protect Nextel’s ability “to obtain the necessary ‘green space’ to house some of its systems while the 800 MHz band is reconfigured” without mentioning that Nextel subsidiary ACI 900 has been the entity buying up all the 900 MHz frequencies. “It seems odd, at best, that an important private wireless frequency band should be frozen to protect an entity that is the only cause for the concern expressed,” UTC said.