Battling bat wings

The hue and cry about the Nextel White Paper has turned to the more studied approach contained within the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) (WT Docket 02-55) and what the private radio industry is going to do to answer the agency’s questions. And there are questions. The thing has more question marks than periods … period.

What strikes me about the dozens upon dozens of questions and issues raised within the NPRM isn’t what was asked, but what wasn’t asked. Do I want to comment on the lack of garb of the radio emperor or simply ignore the all-too-obvious naked truth?

Connecting some of those dots that appear obvious to everyone except for the commissioners, have we noticed that the greatest level of interference within the 800MHz band appears to be between Motorola-made public safety equipment and Motorola-made Nextel equipment?

Now, you might wish to point out that Motorola has many divisions and vice presidents and people who are trying to explain what the Iridium deal was all about, and that these divisions might not talk to one another. It may be that the public safety side of the house doesn’t associate with the IDEN people. But maybe they should.

Maybe before public safety equipment was sold to local governments over the last five to seven years, Motorola should have read the reams of comments filed before the FCC by nearly every corner of the private radio industry, which pointed out that the digital signals produced by IDEN operations were going to create real problems for analog operators. Then, maybe one blue bat wing wouldn’t be beating against another in the marketplace.

So, one question that wasn’t asked in the NPRM is whether Motorola should be stepping up to pony up some of the fix-it money. The NPRM focuses on the duties of CMRS operators, digital operators, analog equipment manufacturers (in general), public safety entities, Congress, cellular operators, and just about everyone even remotely associated with the interference issue. Somehow, the document does not note that the problem is, on one level, internal to Motorola.

That Motorola is still one of Nextel’s largest stockholders places it even more squarely in the middle. That Motorola has been the third-party contractor for relocating SMR operators again nudges its business plans into the spotlight.

As anyone who has read this column with any frequency knows, I am not a Nextel apologist. There are those people who have criticized me as seeming to have an obsession about the machinations of the FCC-Nextel connection and the mischief that has been wrought on our industry in the name of emerging technologies. In this case, maybe we should look beyond Nextel and Mr. McCaw and more closely at the one entity that was positioned to avoid the severity of the interference problem and that chose, instead, to sell radios.

While we are in a mood to examine the root causes of the problem, let us venture even further into the world of honest assessment. Come on in. There’s plenty of room because it’s a place that more diplomatic persons rarely enter and often studiously avoid. But don’t be afraid. It’s just the truth, and who can that hurt?

Literally hundreds of people have repeated again and again via comments, organizational efforts, articles and technical studies that the introduction of low-site, digital operations into an analog environment, absent adequate filtering, would create harmful interference. The industry publications have stated it. The representatives of every private radio group have stated it. And every technical organization from the IEEE to the ham radio operator wing of the Pella, Iowa Moose Lodge has stated it. So, why didn’t the FCC listen?

We sometimes forget that the FCC is the “expert agency” for the purpose of regulating telecommunications, not making systems work. And when the job of regulation is performed moreover for the purpose of raising money via auction dollars or promoting industry consolidation in the name of emerging technologies — giving a boost for a particular political platform — the agency’s experts turn first to listen to the robber barons, and last to the technicians — if at all.

My wife accuses me of selective hearing. I can hear a ball score whispered across a radio speaker that is partially covered by a sweatshirt. I can’t hear her ask me to take the trash out. And I’m the “expert husband agency” in our home. So, I get it. When the FCC is awash in the din of clinking cash registers and blinded by a blizzard of hanging chads, it has trouble focusing on practical applications of technical knowledge.

So, if we are honest, the problems that public safety operators (and all others working in 800MHz analog) are presently suffering may also be laid at the feet of the agency. The FCC was told that its regulatory scheme would cause problems. The agency was informed of the difficulties and was witness to the rising number of incidents of harmful interference that began to spring up and spread like crab grass across the lawn of short-sighted laws that reconfigured the use of the 800MHz band.

I am pleased that the FCC is demonstrating some interest in this area for the sake of the beleaguered public safety operators. I am further willing to give a nod of approval for the FCC not lofting the Nextel White Paper as the sole solution (or even the best solution) for dealing with the problem. But what distresses me is that the agency is searching outside of its own house for solutions and financing. What further distresses me is that proposed solutions might easily benefit Motorola.

So, we are back to asking the unasked questions. Why not solve the problem by having Motorola and the FCC pay for their combined past mistakes? And why does the NPRM lack the one honest statement that would show the compassion and caring and public spirit that Sept. 11, 2001, was supposed to offer in exchange for the horror — an apology to public safety from Reed Hundt.

Schwaninger, MRT’s regulatory consultant, is the principal in the law firm of Schwaninger & Associates, Washington, which is counsel to Small Business in Telecommunications. Schwaninger is also a fellow of the Radio Club of America. His email address is [email protected].