Most Public Safety Licensees Still Not Seeking Planning Reimbursement from Sprint Nextel
Public safety licensees may need to work more diligently at planning for 800 MHz rebanding, if the lack of requests for reimbursement of associated costs is an indication, the 800 MHz Transition Administrator warned. In its quarterly report to the FCC, the TA said many licensees aren’t requesting funds to cover 800 MHz rebanding, which can be complex. As of March 31, Sprint Nextel reported spending $376 million on rebanding costs it agreed to pay under the landmark FCC 800 MHz rebanding order, the TA said.
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“Large public safety entities who need planning funding, those who need it, they should be very quickly engaged in the process,” TA Dir. Brett Hahn told us Thurs.: “We would have anticipated more public safety licensees asking for planning funding.” Fast action is critical, he said: “These complex large systems need time for planning and planning should lead to better negotiations and faster negotiations.”
Planning reimbursement has proven a tough issue, one to which the TA has devoted considerable attention. In Jan., public safety groups warned it could derail reconfiguration. The TA has encouraged licensees to seek planning reimbursement (CD May 24 p8), but fewer than expected are doing so. Only 97 public safety licensees have requested planning funding, with only 28 planning funding agreements totaling $4,840,000 have been negotiated, the TA said.
Public safety systems should be more willing to ask for planning funds, the TA said. “Planning is essential because it fulfills 2 key prerequisites for reconfiguration: a cost estimate for retuning, on which the licensee and Sprint Nextel must agree, and an implementation plan that must be coordinated with the licensee’s vendors and other agencies that may operate on the licensee’s system.” Small systems may not require upfront funding for planning, but “for larger, more complex systems, planning is more involved and since many agencies have limited budgets and resources, advance funding is often required,” the TA said.
The TA is trying to diagnose why relatively few licensees are seeking planning funds, Hahn said. “I think many of the licensees are now grappling with it, which is good,” he said: “We just want to make sure that there’s a clear time commitment, a time deadline on their part, and we need their active engagement. The 800 MHz reconfiguration will happen so they must be engaged.”
The 2nd wave of retunings is going faster than the first, with fewer negotiations going to formal dispute resolution, the TC said. Some 47% of Wave 1, Stage 1 negotiations went that route compared to 35% in Wave 2, Stage 1. But with Wave 3, Stage 1’s mandatory negotiation period almost halfway done, only 46 of 316 licensee agreements have been completed.
However, talks on the complex National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee (NPSPAC) public safety licensees are just beginning, with only 3 of more than 400 agreements in an early NPSPAC wave sent for TA review, the administrator warned. “We have some NPSPAC licensees like San Bernardino (Cal.) with thousands of units,” Hahn said. “The mission of public safety is significantly different than anybody else… The mission of public safety cannot be and will not be compromised.”
In the Southeast, both licensees and Sprint Nextel should be more aggressive in working out agreements, the TA said. To date, the TA has charged $35.3 million in fees and run up $2.4 million in expenses overseeing the rebanding, the report said.