Panel Races Clock to Pick 800-MHz Transition Administrator
The committee that will select a transition administrator (TA) who will oversee the multiyear, multibillion dollar 800 MHz rebanding faces a Sept. 20 deadline for picking a firm or individual to run the process. Public safety sources said Tues. they're growing increasingly anxious about the time it will take them to reband and about the approaching deadlines. Nextel has yet to indicate whether it will agree to the terms of the order. “Most people don’t realize how quickly that committee is supposed to choose someone to oversee the rebanding,” said a carrier source. “It’s a tall order.”
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One of the tightest deadlines in the 800 MHz order, released Aug. 6, was for the selection of the TA, a position created by the FCC. The 5-member panel that’s selecting a TA has met but has agreed not to discuss the proceedings. Nextel, one of members appointed by the FCC, is participating, but with the understanding that it may still withdraw from the process. Nextel has held a series of discussions with the FCC but hasn’t shown its hand on whether it will agree to the plan.
The group specifically doesn’t want to be contacted by consulting firms or others who might want to be TA, but will release further details soon on how it will fill the slot. Based on the Aug. 6 order, the committee doesn’t have to issue a formal request for proposals, but it might do so anyway. The administrator will mediate any disputes over such issues as fair retooling costs. The order provides that the FCC will take on disputes that can’t be resolved through mediation.
Robert Gurss, dir.-legal & govt. affairs for APCO, another member of the group, is chmn. Gurss said Tues. there’s broad interest among APCO members in getting more certainty about the rebanding. More than 100 participated in a Web conference last week on implementation of the order and another session is planned. “We're certainly moving forward in educating the user community about what’s likely to occur,” Gurss said.
Dave Buchanan, chmn. of the APCO Spectrum Management Committee, and network service supervisor in San Bernardino County, Cal., told us most public safety officials know they have a big job ahead. Rebanding can take as long as a year in a large county like San Bernardino, he said.
“The people I've spoken to are just ready to get started whenever we can get started,” he said. “We understand all these things have to happen first. Nextel has to publicly commit. We have to get an administrator in place.” Buchanan added: “You have to plan. You have to know what frequencies you're going to be in. You need to know whether your control channels are moving or not. You have to have a basic plan about how you're going to go about doing it. You don’t want to have to take your system down” to make changes.
Nextel has filed 2 ex partes since mid-Aug. on discussions with FCC about the order. The first, filed Aug. 19, followed a meeting between top Nextel officials, including Pres. Timothy Donahue, and Chmn. Powell and other top FCC officials: “Nextel emphasized the importance of ensuring that the Report and Order promotes the timely completion of realignment, minimizing disruption to incumbent operations, and enabling Nextel to maintain network quality and capacity during the rebanding process.” On Mon., Nextel provided the FCC extensive information on the population coverage of its current 800 MHz licenses.