Sprint Nextel 2 GHz BAS Relocation ‘Far Behind Schedule,’ Carrier Tells FCC
Sprint Nextel told the FCC that, unless the Commission intervenes immediately, “it is improbable” it will complete stage one of the 2 GHz Broadcast Auxiliary Service (BAS) relocation by the FCC’s April 6 deadline. In a BAS relocation status report filed late Tues., Sprint Nextel said despite “diligently working to implement BAS relocation, only 17 of the more than 1,000 BAS licensees who must retune their operations have entered into frequency relocation agreements with Sprint Nextel.” Sprint Nextel said it will keep working toward the Commission’s 31 1/2 month complete BAS relocation deadline. A spokesman said Sprint Nextel’s filing isn’t a request for Commission action, but a fulfillment of its BAS status reporting obligations.
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Relocation of all eligible BAS licensees in the 1990- 2025 MHz band -- mainly news media using satellite uplinks for live remote feeds -- to a new BAS allocation at 2025-2110 MHz was a part of FCC’s 2004 800 MHz rebanding order. Some dub it “the other digital transition.” Aspects include freeing 2 GHz for Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) firms TMI/TerreStar and ICO. The putative MSS entrants have told the FCC they fear Sprint Nextel won’t get the job done in time for their launch milestones. TMI/TerreStar, with a 2007 launch date, has said it might start its own band clearance activities this year if that’s the case.
“Whereas 800 MHz reconfiguration is on schedule for completion within the Commission’s 36-month deadline, not even one BAS station has completed its transition to the new band plan,” Sprint Nextel told the FCC: “The facts speak for themselves: BAS licensees are far behind schedule for completing relocation by the end of the Commission-mandated 31.5 month retuning period.” The FCC schedule requires completion of the BAS relocation in 70 of the top 210 TV markets by Sept. 7, 2006, with the remaining 140 markets set for relocation in the 12 months after that.
Sprint Nextel said it has put 33 full-time employees and $72 million into BAS relocation, claiming its lack of progress is largely out of its control. According to Sprint Nextel, BAS station groups are demanding Sprint Nextel pay or indemnify them against any tax liability for getting new digital BAS equipment. “Nothing in the Commission’s orders in this proceeding or in the Commission’s rules, policies or precedents makes any party other than the BAS incumbents responsible for any federal, state or local taxes that may arise from their own individual business, accounting and economic profiles,” Sprint Nextel argued. Some broadcast industry representatives won’t execute or negotiate relocation pacts until the govt. confirms they won’t incur a relocation-related tax liability, Sprint Nextel said.
BAS licensees and BAS station groups haven’t been able to agree with Sprint Nextel on frequency relocation agreements, the wireless carrier reported. Sprint Nextel wants to speed the negotiation with an industry approved frequency relocation agreement (FRA) template, but BAS licensees have objected to a model FRA it created with broadcasters, the firm said. Sprint Nextel said it spent the past month retooling the template after broadcaster’s suggestions, and hopes the “revised template will prove acceptable to the majority of BAS incumbents and that it will be finalized soon.” But even if the template is completed soon to the satisfaction of all, individual stations must still negotiate and agree on costs of their relocations before ordering replacement equipment and moving, Sprint Nextel noted.
TMI told the FCC in May it didn’t like the looks of Nextel’s proposed BAS relocation schedule, and called for more details, firmer dates and more frequent status reports from Nextel (CD May 12 p5). A TMI attorney said the Commission “will have to intervene promptly to get phase one moving.” Counsel for ICO declined to comment before fully reviewing the Sprint Nextel report.