[TWIAR] Nextel offers $850 million to fix radio disruption

[Greg Williams]

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/10479057
64266651.xml


Nextel offers $850 million to fix radio disruption 

03/17/03

RYAN FRANK and EMILY TSAO 

Nextel Communications has offered to pay $850 million in an
all-or-nothing proposal that it said will fix a national problem of
interference between wireless phone signals and police and fire
radios. 
     
Accused of being the chief creator of the interference, Nextel said
the proposed fixes would eliminate conflicts in the adjacent airwaves
that carry conversations for millions of wireless phone users and
public safety officers. The plan was created by the cell phone
company, public safety groups and radio industry groups. 

The offer, an increase of $350 million over an earlier company
proposal, was disclosed in a complicated 125-page plan submitted to
federal regulators. 

The Reston, Va., company said the money should be enough to upgrade
or replace thousands of radios used by firefighters as well as taxi
cab drivers and automakers, from Miami to Seattle. 

But company executives said the offer is good only if its entire plan
is approved by the Federal Communications Commission, which manages
the nation's airwaves. 

It could be a tough sell. 

The proposal calls for prime, but unused, airwaves to be turned over
to Nextel. The company's competitors and groups representing
utilities and manufacturers call the plan a self-serving, cumbersome
house of cards that wouldn't eliminate the conflicts. 

The FCC is reviewing the filing and more than 600 comments about the
interference. But the Nextel-backed plan carries extra weight because
it is the only one with broad support and the only one the commission
recently sought comments about. 

The FCC could mandate a solution as soon as this summer, officials
said. 

The Nextel-endorsed proposal, which is supported by public safety and
some radio groups, is among the latest in a series of 11/2 years of
filings to the FCC about the conflict. 

It comes five years after a Washington County engineer first exposed
the interference after discovering conflicts between signals from a
Nextel antenna and firefighter radios near Washington Square. 

An investigation by The Oregonian found that police and fire
officials in 30 other states have reported at least one confirmed or
suspected instance of wireless phone signals interfering with public
safety radios or in-car computers. The interference left police
officers without radio communication as they rushed to a burglary,
chased a man with a gun and tried to report a shooting. 

Nextel first submitted a proposed solution to federal regulators in
November 2001. The push to resolve the disruption had gained momentum
after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks exposed other flaws in
public safety communications at the World Trade Center in New York
City. 

Four months later, the FCC acknowledged for the first time that the
interference is a life-threatening, nationwide problem that will get
worse. 

With the support of public safety and wireless organizations, Nextel
later submitted two additional proposals to federal regulators. The
five-member communications commission, which is appointed by the
president, stopped accepting written suggestions about the conflict
in February. 

If the FCC orders a solution, industry executives expect it to be
challenged in federal court. Busy bandwidth Millions of people depend
on the 800-megahertz bandwidth to carry communications from two-way
radios and cell phones. The list includes emergency workers,
manufacturers and utility companies. Cell phone conversations carried
by companies such as AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless also are
transmitted there. 

But Nextel's strong signals cause the most severe interference. Its
phones use radio frequencies intertwined with or adjacent to those
used by police and firefighters. The company has built hundreds of
towers throughout metropolitan areas that sometimes overwhelm public
safety radio signals. 

The interference problems notwithstanding, Nextel and public safety
agencies operate within federal rules. 

The current Nextel-backed plan is the "the most workable, viable,
effective plan for solving interference in the shortest period of
time," said Lawrence Krevor, a Nextel vice president. 

About 90 percent of the radio users affected by interference endorsed
the plan, which could be carried out in 31/2 years, the company said. 

"We are working hard to convince those that the compromise plan is
the only real solution we can come up with," said Harlin McEwen, a
spokesman for the International Associations of Chiefs of Police,
which endorsed the plan. 

Of the $850 million Nextel has offered to pay, about $700 million
would be dedicated to replace or update public safety radios. The
remainder would improve radios used by manufacturers, dispatch
companies and other businesses. An independent administrator would
dole out the money. 

The plan would separate the intense wireless phone signals from the
less powerful public safety frequencies. 

Nextel also would give up frequencies in the 700-, 800- and 900-MHz
bandwidths it said it bought for $2 billion in exchange for spectrum
in the 1.9-gigahertz bandwidth at no additional cost. 

The airwaves that Nextel covets, designed for digital wireless phones
and hand-held radios, are prime technological real estate because
they are not in use and would be available nationwide. Estimates put
the value of the airwaves at $2 billion on the open market. 

A five-member committee, which includes one spot for Nextel, would
manage the reorganization. Competitors take aim Nextel's competitors,
manufacturers and utilities complain the company-backed proposal
would require mounds of money and time but wouldn't eliminate
interference. 

"They have a plan which has a thousand moving parts with a hundred
different players to solve a problem that deserves and can have a
much simpler solution," said Travis Larson, spokesman for the
Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, an industry trade
group. 

The National Association of Manufacturers and Boeing both question
whether Nextel's $850 million would be enough. 

Motorola, which has an interest on all sides of the debate, has
estimated a solution could cost as much as $4 billion. The company
owns a 9 percent stake in Nextel and is one of the nation's leading
maker of radios for everything from police cars to taxi cabs. 

But "nobody knows how much it will cost for sure," said McEwen, who
represents groups that endorsed the Nextel-backed plan. 

The wireless companies suggest the only way to eliminate interference
is to move police communications to the 700-MHz spectrum. That move
would require an act of Congress, which makes it unlikely to fit into
an FCC-approved solution, government officials said. 

"If you really want to get rid of interference, 700 is the only
solution," said Brian Fontes, a Cingular vice president. 

Nextel argues against that fix, saying it would take too long and
cost too much. 

Nextel accuses competing cell companies of making "every effort to
obstruct and delay" its plan. The company said its competitors
contribute to the interference in seven states and said they
"distorted the technical record by repeatedly downplaying" the fact. 

Nextel also chastised them for not helping pay to fix it. 

"A lot of folks are sitting out there and taking shots at (the
proposal) for one reason or another," Nextel's Krevor said, "but they
aren't coming up with alternative solutions or better solutions." 


Webmail Provided by Lock-Net Internet Services: www.lock-net.com