In the continuation of a pitched battle among wireless carriers o...

willing to bid in an “immediate” auction of spectrum at 1.9 GHz (CD Feb 26 p1). Since then, an FCC staff proposal on how to correct public safety interference has begun circulating on the 8th floor, which would have Nextel pay for incumbent retuning at 800 MHz and pay the difference between that and the value of 10 MHz at 1.9 GHz. Verizon Wireless and other wireless carriers have opposed the “consensus plan” for 800 MHz backed by Nextel, the Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) and others. They have argued against Nextel getting a “spectrum windfall.” In the petition filed Thurs., Verizon Wireless urged the FCC to redesignate 1910-1915 MHz and 1990-1995 MHz for licensed PCS, adopt broadband PCS service rules and auction the spectrum in a paired block. “Nextel has advanced a plan that would have the Commission circumvent required auction procedures by granting licenses for these 1.9 GHz bands exclusively to Nextel,” Verizon Wireless said. (The consensus plan entails a spectrum swap covering 700, 800 and 900 MHz and 1.9 GHz, in which Nextel would gain spectrum in bands such as 1.9 GHz in return for spectrum it would relinquish elsewhere to do rebanding to eliminate public safety interference.) “This end run around the auction process would ignore the congressionally mandated mechanism used to license CMRS spectrum, drawing the Commission into a subjective, valuation guessing game rather than relying on the marketplace results from competitive bidding.” Verizon Wireless said this plan would grant Nextel exclusive use of 10 MHz at 1.9 GHz, to the detriment of competitors. “Verizon Wireless is ready, willing and able to participate in the auction of the 1.9 GHz bands and believes that an open auction of the 1.9 GHz spectrum is likely to attract significant interest and participation by other competitors,” the petition said. A Nextel spokesman dismissed the filing as the latest in a “long line of attempts to delay a solution to public safety. We see nothing that is new in this filing.”