POWELL: FCC SCOPING OUT ALTERNATIVE TO NEXTEL PLAN
The FCC is investigating a proposal by CTIA and other wireless carriers to give Nextel spectrum at 2.1 GHz instead of 1.9 GHz it desires, despite threats by Nextel to pull the plug on its rebanding agreement, FCC Chmn. Powell said Thurs. Powell also said he hopes to get an 800 MHz order voted out of the Commission before June. Nextel said earlier this week it wouldn’t accept any rebanding plan that gives it spectrum at 2.1 GHz, which it claims is much less valuable than spectrum at 1.9 GHz.
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“People say whatever they want to say in their letters but it doesn’t mean it is the end of the story,” Powell told reporters following the FCC meeting. “I am not able to share with you all of the details of where we are. I can only say that we are still pretty confident that we are making progress, and we are going to get there pretty soon.” Pressed on timing, Powell said the order should be ready in the next few weeks. “We're going to shoot for that,” he said.
The Commission has a responsibility to look at different proposals for rebanding, FCC Comr. Abernathy told us Thurs. “It’s wonderful that they worked out an agreement, but as a regulator my job is to make sure that agreement still serves the public interest,” Abernathy said: “It very well may, but what we're trying to do is gather all of the information to see if it does.”
Abernathy said the Commission was in the middle of a painstaking review of the data, mainly by the Office of Engineering & Technology: “We're in the process of looking at all the data and trying to figure out is this the best arrangement for the rebanding to protect public safety, or is there some other scenario that’s better. We also have to say when people lobby us on various perspectives we know what you want. Now we have to step back and say is this best for the public.”
Abernathy said that the FCC will have to make the best decision for public safety, which she said has to be FCC’s “primary goal.” Abernathy said of Nextel: “When we come out with something they'll either say it’s a good business decision or not for us and we certainly have to keep that in mind. It’s a factor.”
CTIA late Thurs. sent the FCC a letter disputing Nextel criticisms of its April 29 rebanding proposal, which urged that Nextel receive spectrum at 2.1 GHz. “This proceeding presents a difficult challenge to the Commission,” CTIA said: “However, the Commission’s role is not to satisfy the ideal business needs of any one party, but rather to solve the public safety interference problem in the most legally sustainable, equitable and effective way. CTIA’s proposal does just that. It represents a significant movement from the CMRS industry’s original position toward a position that truly is a compromise.”
“We're hopeful that a decision at the FCC is imminent,” a Nextel spokesman said. “The whole point of the letter [to Powell] was not to suggest that we are walking away. What it does suggest is that the focus of the FCC should properly be placed on the spectrum at 1.9 GHz.”