La.’s 800 MHz Rebanding Postponed Due to Hurricane

Under the TA plan, approved in March by the FCC, La. was to start reconfiguration Oct. 3. But “as a result of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina… and the resulting interruption to essential services in these areas,” the TA said it let La. begin reconfiguring Jan. 3. The TA said it still will accept any agreements submitted before Jan. 3 and “otherwise work with Nextel and affected licensees to provide the maximum necessary flexibility for reconfiguration.”

TA and public safety officials don’t know if storm damage will slow rebanding in affected areas. “It’s too hard to tell,” said Robert Gurss, dir.-legal & govt. affairs for the Assn. of Public-Safety Communications Officials International (APCO). “For public safety agencies in the immediate area it’s going to be a challenge to deal with the situation,” he said. APCO said Fri. it launched a “Members Helping Members” Web forum to assist Gulf region PSAPs. The TA has “started discussing internally” whether additional relief should be provided for the affected states but “we don’t have any conclusion yet,” said Kelly: “We are assessing the impact of the hurricane and any further actions needed to address it.”

800 MHz Rebanding Slower Than Expected

Overall 800 MHz rebanding is moving more slowly than expected but probably will speed up once those involved know the process better, Gurss told us: “It’s moving forward, but not necessarily at the speed that everybody would like to.” But a Nextel spokesman disagreed, saying the reconfiguration is “timely” and good progress has been made.

Under the FCC 800 MHz rebanding order, public safety 800 MHz licensees must move to the lower end of the band, swapping frequencies with commercial users. The 3-year, $4.9 billion project, aimed at eliminating interference on public safety radio channels from commercial users like Nextel, began June 27 and will be paid for by Nextel. Rebanding will be in 4 waves, each split into 2 phases. Most public safety systems are in the 2nd phase.

Rebanding often lags due to Nextel approval of planning funding, Gurss said. A licensee must submit such requests only if it needs money to plan its reconfiguration. Requests should go directly to Nextel, and once it approves them they must get clearance by the TA, which oversees band reconfiguration. Gurss said “a number of requests have been submitted to Nextel but the process hasn’t moved forward in that regard.”

“Most public safety [agencies] aren’t prepared to extend their resources” to the rebanding and to be reimbursed later, “so they want to get funds in advance,” Gurss said. “Most public safety licensees are in the 2nd phase, and while it may seem like it’s a long time away, those people need to get those planning funding requests approved early, so they can move forward.”

The TA last week ordered that licensees “concurrently” inform it of all funding planning requests sent to Nextel, said Brett Haan, a managing dir. of BearingPoint, a part of TA. The order arose from recommendations by APCO and several public safety licensees, Haan said: “It’s important that all parties know that we are tracking and monitoring this” to improve the negotiations. Gurss said the new requirement “might help. It would allow the TA to track the progress of those requests and if necessary, take the proactive role and keep the process moving.”

The TA is “actively seeking input from all stakeholders on a consistent basis and will consider any requests to improve the process,” Haan said. For example, he said, the TA is weighing whether to lengthen the 75-day window for licensees to submit planning funding requests for large systems, as some stakeholders want. “We are going through a lessons-learned review and once we have more experience with contracts and the process, that will allow us to refine the process to make it more efficient,” Kelly said.

Gurss expects the later rebanding waves to move faster, he said. “It takes time to get it moving,” he said: “There will be a learning curve for all the parties and once people have a better idea what to expect, the pace will pick up significantly.” The reconfiguration process is in the first phase of the first wave, during which channel 1-120 licensees in first-wave markets must leave the lower band. The 2nd phase of the first wave, when Wave 1 public safety licensees must move to the lower band, begins Feb. 1.

“We are pleased with the progress made so far and we believe our negotiations with all licensees have gone well,” a Nextel spokesman said: “We look forward to a timely and expeditious reconfiguration of the 800 MHz spectrum.” Gurss said there’s “clearly a lot of interest” in the rebanding within the public safety community. For example, he said “a lot of people” attended the session on 800 MHz rebanding at the recent APCO conference in Denver.

“One key message” voiced at the conference was that public safety agencies in all 4 waves should plan rebanding efforts as early as possible, Gurss said: “It’s a complicated process,” especially when moving large systems. On June 27, the reconfiguration process officially began for the 15 wave 1 NPSPAC regions, but the TA and Nextel are already talking to licensees in wave 2 and later on a voluntary basis; frequency planning for wave 2, set to start Oct. 3, has begun.

“There are a number of things that affected 800 MHz licensees can do to be prepared for the reconfiguration,” the Nextel spokesman said: “The most important thing is that every licensee needs to make sure that the most current information possible about the entity and its licenses is being provided to the FCC’s universal licensing system. Frequently, difficulties arise when the Commission doesn’t have the up-to-date contact information.” Licensees should “also be doing things internally to prepare for the reconfiguration, like determining who is the contact person within their organization to talk with Nextel during negotiations,” the spokesman said. They should “review what is the legal process they must go through to get approval of a contract with Nextel,” he said: “An entity should prepare all the inventory that has to be touched as a result of reconfiguration.”