CROSS-BORDER ISSUES UNSOLVED, BUT 800-MHz ORDER REACTION POSITIVE

“We're still reviewing it at this point,” a Nextel spokesman said Mon. “It was released late Friday and it’s an order of more than 250 pages.” Several public safety officials said Mon. they were still wading through more the 250 pages of details, but saw few red flags. “There’s a lot to read and think about,” one public safety official said.

“We were really happy the Commission managed to get it out in time for the conference,” said Robert Gurss, APCO gen. counsel. “While we're still studying all the details, it seems to address most of our concerns. In general, we're very pleased with the order and the way it came out. But we still have to pore through some of the issues.”

The report leaves several issues up in the air. One big issue is how rebanding will work along the Mexico and Canada borders, issues highlighted by APCO meeting in Montreal this week. Cross-border issues are especially sensitive because of homeland security. The FCC delayed resolution of the related issues because of questions from groups like APCO and an inability to find an easy solution. Canada, according to an official at the conference, sees little reason to move quickly because it doesn’t have any congestion issues for public safety at 800 MHz.

“We need to resolve that quickly because it has sort of a cascading effect in states that are partially on border areas,” Gurss said. “That’s something we've got to push on because the Commission’s order leaves that open. It’s hard [for APCO members] to move forward until they know what channels are going to be changed. It’s particularly an issue for interoperability channels. For a state that’s partially in a border area like California, they want to have statewide interoperability. If part of the state gets changed in one way and part gets changed in another way they lose that.”

FCC Chief of Staff Bryan Tramont told us the reaction was very positive from APCO attendees, based on his conversations Mon.: “People are very pleased we were able to get the order adopted and released prior to APCO. This has been a high priority for the organization for two or three years now. We've worked in partnership with public safety and this is the conclusion of the first phase of that partnership towards an interference-free communications system for public safety.”

Tramont said cross-border issues remain among “the most thorny” still to be resolved: “We have good regulatory relationships with our colleagues in Canada and Mexico, and we look forward to working with them to get to a mutually acceptable arrangement on the border issues.” Tramont conceded that the rebanding remains a major job: “The logistical undertaking is a significant task and the Transition Administrator will have a substantial jobs on his or her hands. There are all the logistical issues; there are cross-border issues we still have to resolve; and then whatever our friends from industry throw at us legally will be the other final frontier.”

Tramont said the Commission will focus on the DTV transition, which was mentioned in the 9/11 Commission report and will help public safety by giving it more spectrum in the 700 MHz band. “We continue to press forward very aggressively on the DTV transition,” he said: “You'll see additional items addressing the public interest demands for digital TV in the next month or two, then you'll move on to see the resolution of what 15%, maybe 5%, mean and what multicasting means for DTV. Those are all things that are going to be happening in the next 6 months.”

It’s “likely” Nextel will accept the FCC’s terms for the spectrum swap the agency approved in the order, Legg Mason said in a report Mon. Legg Mason said the “complex and lengthy order does not appear to diverge significantly from the agency’s announcements in July when it unanimously approved the item.” The order enables Nextel -- which built its systems by combining slices of spectrum -- to gain more contiguous frequencies in the 800 MHz and 1.9 GHz spectrum blocks. In return, Nextel would turn over some of its noncontiguous frequencies to incumbents, including public safety agencies, and pay their relocation costs. “The idea is Nextel must deliver spectrum and payments that will equal the value of the new spectrum that Nextel will receive,” Legg Mason said. Nextel faces several conditions in the written order, which provides details not known when the order was approved last month. “We continue to think it is likely Nextel will ultimately accept” terms, although it “will take some time for parties, including Nextel, to fully digest the complex technical, economic, policy and legal details” in the order, Legg Mason said: “If Nextel’s concerns are relatively modest, it could seek FCC assurances informally, and if unsuccessful, file a petition for reconsideration.” (Editor’s Note: To receive a copy of the original Special Report call 800-771-9202).