N.Y. State Attorney Gen. Eliot Spitzer urged FCC Chmn. Powell Mon...

incumbent retuning while the company would receive replacement spectrum at 1.9 GHz or 2.1 GHz. Verizon Wireless and other carriers have argued that spectrum at 1.9 GHz should be auctioned if it’s part of an 800 MHz rebanding plan, with Verizon pledging $5 billion as an opening bid if an auction were held. Spitzer applauded the proposal on the table requiring Nextel to assume relocation costs for public safety. “The current proposal, however, addresses the critical needs of public safety at a tremendous cost to the American taxpayer,” he wrote Powell. Public safety groups and Nextel have backed a “consensus plan” for solving interference problems, in which Nextel would pay $850 million for public safety and private wireless relocation costs and would receive spectrum at 1.9 GHz in exchange for bands it would give up elsewhere. “While Nextel clearly should be compensated for its net loss of spectrum, as well as for its commitment to assume the costs of public safety’s equipment, it should not receive a windfall [from] the American taxpayers in exchange for its cooperation,” Spitzer said. “Nextel must be required to compensate the [Treasury] for the spectrum it receives in the amount that would have been received at an auction of that spectrum. That payment, of course, would be offset by the value of the spectrum the company would give up in the 800 MHz band, as well as by the amount it spends on the costs of public safety’s equipment,” he said. Spitzer cautioned that Nextel doesn’t need to be compensated in the form of $5 billion of “free spectrum” for complying with federal requirements [on] interference.