Subject: [NEXTEL-1] 800 MHz Subterfuge?

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 14:35:05 -0400

800 MHz Subterfuge?
BY MARK ROCKWELL
MAY 17, 2004

WASHINGTON -- The latest round of back and forth in the 800 MHz argument
got a little uglier late last week.
Nextel Communications accused CTIA, Verizon Wireless and other carriers
of bending the facts to support their rival spectrum relocation plan at
the FCC. At least one accused carrier scoffed at the claims today,
however.

In a letter sent late Friday to the FCC, Nextel said filings by CTIA and
Verizon Wireless concerning the realignment of 800 MHz spectrum omitted
"pertinent factual information about 2.1 GHz as replacement spectrum."
Nextel said 70 percent of the license holders in the 2165-2180 MHz
spectrum band are cellular carriers such as Verizon Wireless, AT&T
Wireless, Sprint and others. It also said those carriers failed to
inform the FCC that they held the licenses in the band.

A Verizon Wireless spokesman dismissed the charges as inconsequential.
"I feel confident the FCC knows who holds licenses and where they hold
them. They, after all, issue licenses," Verizon Wireless spokesman
Jeffrey Nelson tells news@2.
Nextel says it would have to negotiate the clearing of the 2.1 GHz range
and the resulting negotiations with incumbents would slow down Nextel's
move to the new spectrum and possibly pump up costs. Nextel spokeswoman
Leigh Horner says Verizon Wireless and CTIA's backing of a move to 2.1
GHz is "disingenuous."

The company said the majority of licenses holders at 2165 MHz and 2180
MHz are "cellular carriers, i.e. Verizon Wireless, AT&T Wireless,
Alltel, Sprint and U.S.  Cellular -- the most vocal proponents of
assigning inferior replacement spectrum at 2.1 GHz to Nextel." Verizon,
Cingular and AT&T Wireless alone hold licenses for about 40 percent of
the microwave links.
In its letter, Nextel said even though the FCC licenses spectrum, the
carriers' failure to note the ownership in their comments and proposals
in the 800 MHz debate was "beyond comprehension," adding the commission
depends on "the candor and veracity of its licensees in its proceedings,
as well as the associations that represent them. Pertinent factual
omissions should not and must not be tolerated, particularly in public
safety-related proceedings."

http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=newsat2direct&starting=3&pubdate=05/17/04

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