Subject: [NEXTEL-1] 800 MHz tit for tat continues with CTIA letter

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 00:58:41 -0400

800 MHz tit for tat continues with CTIA letter
By Heather Forsgren Weaver
May 14 12:35:00, 2004

WASHINGTON—The Compromise Plan offered by the Cellular
Telecommunications & Internet Association is the best option to solve
the public-safety interference problem in the 800 MHz band, CTIA
asserted in a letter filed late Thursday.
“The Federal Communications Commission’s responsibility, of course, is
to do what is best for public safety, not what is best for Nextel
Communications Inc. or any other private party. To any observer,
particularly those who have been involved in this proceeding for years,
CTIA’s Compromise Plan clearly is better for public safety,” wrote Diane
Cornell, CTIA vice president of regulatory policy. “Nextel claims that
its plan is ‘fair to all stakeholders, including the American taxpayer.’
But its plan is not ‘fair’ to public safety when compared to the CTIA
Compromise Plan. It asks for a spectrum grant before it completes any
efforts to relocate public safety, the opposite of what is proposed in
the CTIA Compromise Plan.”

CTIA also takes umbrage at a claim made earlier this week by Nextel
President Timothy Donahue that cellular carriers are causing at least 25
percent of the interference in the 800 MHz band.

“There is nothing in the record—apart from a completely unsubstantiated
statement from Nextel—that supports Nextel’s statement that other
carriers are responsible for anything close to 25 percent of the
problem. In reality, the record indicates just the opposite: that Nextel
is responsible for the vast majority of the problem, and other carriers
may be responsible for at most a very small percentage of the
interference incidents,” said Cornell.

Nextel has argued that CTIA cannot call its plan a compromise because
Nextel—one of its members—was not involved in formulating the plan. But
at a press conference Thursday, CTIA President Steve Largent said that
if Nextel can call its plan the Consensus Plan, the CTIA can call its
plan the Compromise Plan because it represents a compromise between the
companies opposing Nextel.

Late last month, CTIA said Nextel should pay $3 billion to cover the
rebanding costs of the 800 MHz band, but instead of getting spectrum in
the 1.9 GHz band, it should get spectrum in the 2.1 GHz band. Nextel
would get the 2.1 GHz spectrum as the retuning in the 800 MHz band is
completed. The money would also be deposited in a third-party trust fund
with protections against bankruptcy.

The Consensus Plan would shuffle the 800 MHz band to eliminate the
current situation where public safety, private wireless, Nextel, other
SMRs and cellular carriers are intermingled. In exchange for giving up
spectrum in the 700 MHz, 800 MHz and 900 MHz bands and for paying to
retune public safety and private wireless, Nextel has asked for 10
megahertz in the 1.9 GHz band. It is supported by Nextel; the Industrial
Telecommunications Association, which represents private-wireless
interests; and some public-safety advocacy groups. Other public-safety
advocacy groups have expressed concern about the Consensus Plan.

http://rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=18101

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