Verizon Wireless Accuses Nextel of Illegal Negotiations at FCC
Verizon Wireless Thurs. called on the FCC to order Nextel to fully disclose any “post-decisional” discussions the company has held with Commission staff on calculation of the value of spectrum that Nextel must relinquish as part of the proposed swap in the 800 MHz rebanding order. Verizon charged that the change Nextel is seeking could save it paying out as much as $700 million.
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Verizon cited a report by Legg Mason last week that Nextel was negotiating with the FCC changes to key parts of the order, released by the FCC Aug. 6. Verizon accused Nextel of engaging in “a post-decisional yet wholly non- transparent effort to significantly reduce its financial obligations to the U.S. Treasury.” Verizon, the most vociferous critic of the deal Nextel cut with the public safety community that formed the basis of the rebanding order, wrote Chmn. Powell raising the questions.
“If accurate, the report is highly troubling, because Nextel has not made the required public disclosures of such discussions,” Verizon said. “Moreover, the relief Nextel apparently is requesting can only be pursued through a formal petition for reconsideration subject to… notice and comment requirements - a proceeding in which all interested parties would have the right to participate… If such discussions have taken place, Nextel’s ex parte filings certainly do not put the public on notice that the company is seeking to increase the size of its windfall, at the expense of the American taxpayer.”
A spokesman for Nextel denied the carrier had violated Commission rules or the law through discussions after the order’s release. “As we've said all along in the ex partes we have filed we have shared the information on our meetings and on our discussions with the FCC.” Nextel has focused on one issue, the spokesman said: “The question that is driving our thinking is will we still be able to operate our network at the same high level of quality of service to which our customers are accustomed?”
Verizon is widely expected to challenge the Nextel decision in court if the carriers agrees to the 800 MHz rebanding the FCC offered in Aug. Bryan Tramont, FCC chief of staff, said Thurs. the Commission had not been told when the order would be published in the Federal Register, which would start the clock ticking on Nextel’s decision on the rebanding plan. Tramont said big orders can take longer to get published.