Subject: [NEXTEL-1] 800 MHz Grind Continues- Verizon Goes To Congress

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 15:05:23 -0400

800 MHz Grind Continues
BY MARK ROCKWELL
MAY 10, 2004

WASHINGTON--As the FCC apparently opts for a private vote on the 800 MHz
issue instead of putting it on its formal meeting agenda this week,
last-minute lobbying among the interested parties continues.

The FCC has been working to get its decision on 800 MHz moved to a vote
'on circulation' for some time, say some FCC watchers. That would allow
the commission to issue the controversial decision without presenting it
at a formal meeting. That likely would, observers say, anger everyone
involved. Yet that may be beside the case as the commission seems
resigned to a lawsuit no matter what its final decision. FCC
Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said last week the FCC was seeking the
least litigious path it could in reaching the decision.

As the decision-making process ground on late last week, the most
vociferous opponents of the Nextel Communications-backed so-called
Consensus Plan looked to counter last week's powerful endorsement of it
by the National Association of Broadcasters by lining up members of
Congress and further explaining alternatives.

Verizon Wireless today distributed a letter signed by 11 members of
Congress asking the FCC to look into a number of concerns with the
Nextel plan before ruling on it. The letter, sent to the FCC late last
week, said the plan had no guaranteed funding for public safety groups
to upgrade their communications systems and doesn't provide adequate
funding to relocate public safety -- capping it at $700 million. It
added the plan, if approved, would 'be tied up in litigation for years.'

The letter was signed by Rep. Albert Wynn, D-Md.; Rep. John Shimkus,
R-Ill.;
Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Ohio; Rep. Phil English, R-Penn.; Rep. Robert
Wexler, D-Fla.; Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala.; Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.;
Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas; Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas; Rep. Randy Forbes,
R-Va.; and Rep. J.  Gresham Barrett, R-S.C.

CTIA also weighed in again at the FCC late last Friday with a filing
that explained
why giving Nextel a slice of spectrum at 2.1 GHz, instead of Nextel's
choice of 1.9
GHz, would make more sense. The organization said substituting spectrum
at
2.1 GHz would be infinitely more suitable cost-wise and technology wise
than at 1.9 GHz.

http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=document&doc_id=133160&verticalID=34&vertical=Business+and+Finance&industry=

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