Groups Ask FCC to Reconsider Parts of ITFS Order
Education groups and fixed wireless providers asked the FCC to make some key changes to a June 2004 order providing revised rules for ITFS and MDS operators in the 2495-2690 MHz band -- designed to promote wireless broadband by revising the 40-year-old rules that governed how the spectrum was used. An agreement by the Catholic TV Network (CTN), the National ITFS Assn. (NIA) and the Wireless Communications Assn. (WCA) precipitated the order. But the 3 groups all raised objections, filing petitions for reconsideration and arguing that the order deviated from their proposal in critical ways.
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WCA sought partial reconsideration, arguing among other changes that the Commission should use smaller Basic Trading Areas (BTAs) rather than Major Economic Areas (MEAs) as the building blocks for transitions. If the FCC adopts the change, sources said, it would clear the way for market-by-market transitions rather than requiring operators to clear huge areas.
“WCA believes that the failure to adopt certain components of the coalition proposal was due to oversight or misunderstanding, and that the Commission should on reconsideration adopt the appropriate portion of the coalition proposal,” WCA said. “It is ironic that the Commission cites speed and simplicity as its reasons for adopting its approach, when only delay and additional complexity will result and consumers will pay the price.”
As an example of the problems presented by the order, WCA said the St. George, Utah, BTA overlaps the L.A.-San Diego and Phoenix MEAs. “One does not have to run the numbers to determine that the costs, delays and other logistical difficulties associated with transitioning the exponentially larger Los Angeles-San Diego and Phoenix MEAs undermine any economic case for introducing new… service to St. George,” WCA said. Similarly, Cridersville, O., overlaps 4 MEAs - Detroit-Ann Arbor- Flint, Chicago, Columbus, and Cincinnati-Dayton.
In a joint petition, CTN and the NIA cited concerns the FCC order “deviated from the carefully crafted and delicately balanced Coalition Proposal, which took years to develop with input from dozens of stakeholders.” The groups added: “Quite simply, by picking and choosing from some elements of the coalition proposal, and rejecting others in favor of alternative proposals, the Commission has wreaked havoc on some of the most basic elements of the transition plan proposed by the coalition.”
The groups also supported BTA instead of MEA transitions. They also argued that the FCC should block deployment of 2-way cellular systems in the 2.5 GHz band prior to transition to the new band plan. CTN and NIA called the decision “astonishing given the Commission’s clear recognition -- both in this proceeding and in the 800 MHz public safety proceeding -- that there is a very real danger of harmful interference created by an incompatible mix of high-power, high-site systems and low power, two-way cellularized systems on interleaved channels.”