https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • Product Guides
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookie Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • Product Guides
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

content


Let the rebanding begin

Let the rebanding begin

In an almost anticlimactic announcement, Nextel Communications last month said it would accept the terms of the FCC's 800 MHz order
  • Written by Urgent Communications Administrator
  • 1st March 2005

In an almost anticlimactic announcement, Nextel Communications last month said it would accept the terms of the FCC’s 800 MHz order, in which Nextel will pay all rebanding costs in return for contiguous spectrum in the 800 MHz and 1.9 GHz bands.

Under the FCC order, Nextel must contribute at least $4.8 billion in spectrum and cash to pay for rebanding, which is designed to mitigate interference to public-safety communications in the 800 MHz band. In addition, public safety will receive additional spectrum in the deal. However, Nextel’s acceptance of the order was a prerequisite to rebanding, and the FCC had established a deadline of Feb. 7 for the wireless carrier to announce its decision.

“So on behalf of Nextel, it’s my privilege and honor to answer, ‘Yes,’” said Nextel CEO Tim Donahue during a press conference announcing the decision. “Nextel accepts the responsibilities, obligations, license modifications and conditions specified in the FCC’s Report and Order to eliminate 800 megahertz CMRS-public-safety interference. The FCC’s decision is simply the right thing to do for first responders … and our nation’s homeland security, and for Nextel.”

FCC Chairman Michael Powell, who also attended the press conference, recalled the difficulties associated with the three-year proceeding but said the favorable result for first responders was well worth the effort.

“It is one of the most significant things I have ever had the privilege to be involved in and one in which I am enormously proud,” Powell said. “I will tell you, I’m going to leave the commission in a month, and I would never have left if this was undone. … We weren’t going anywhere until it was finished.”

But Powell noted that the job is not complete, that all involved have only “earned the right to do the hard part” — the three-year rebanding process that the Transition Administrator will oversee (see First Responder Communications, March 2005).

Under the revised order, Nextel is required to pay $2.8 billion in cash. The first priority for that money is to pay for rebanding, but any leftover funds are earmarked for the U.S. Treasury. Nextel Senior Vice President and Chief Regulatory Officer Robert Foosaner predicted that the U.S. Treasury would be receiving a payment.

Foosaner also said he believes rebanding will solve the interference problem, bluntly answering a reporter’s question regarding what will happen if there is any interference to public-safety communications after rebanding is completed.

“I think the commission has demonstrated they’ll have our head,” Foosaner said. “The commission sent a very loud message here. They’re not going to tolerate interference to public safety.”

Although Nextel waited until the last possible day to make the announcement, the decision was hardly a surprise. At the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials Winter Summit the previous week, it was revealed that the wireless carrier already had negotiated rebanding agreements with some 800 MHz users. In addition, Nextel faced substantial political and public-relations backlash — not to mention more stringent interference rules — if it declined to reband, especially after the FCC granted many of concessions Nextel sought in a revised order.

Nextel spokesman Tim O’Regan said his company made the decision independently, but most observers said the wireless operator’s merger announcement with Sprint effectively sealed Nextel’s commitment to rebanding.

Nextel’s current interleaved spectrum would be of little use to Sprint’s future broadband wireless plans. However, the contiguous spectrum Nextel will receive at 800 MHz and especially 1.9 GHz — the location of Sprint’s airwaves — through the rebanding deal caused the merger to make sense.

“I think there was always an understanding that Nextel would [accept the rebanding order,]” said Roger Entner, director of wireless/mobile service for The Yankee Group. “I don’t think it was ever contemplated that they wouldn’t do it.”

Nextel’s O’Regan said shareholders for Sprint and Nextel are expected to vote on the merger this spring, probably in May. When the merger was announced in December, many analysts predicted Verizon Communications would pre-empt the Sprint/Nextel deal with its own bid for Sprint, which uses the same CDMA technology as Verizon in the wireless space.

“I was surprised [Verizon] didn’t [bid for Sprint],” Michael Grossi, Adventis vice president, said.

However, Grossi said he no longer believes Verizon — which has bid $6.8 billion for long-distance carrier MCI — will attempt to buy Sprint. Not only is Verizon Wireless confident in its ability to grow organically, consolidation with Sprint could complicate parent Verizon’s efforts to lobby Congress for deregulation of its wireline business, Grossi said.

In addition, Entner said the prospect of a Verizon/Sprint would leave the U.S. wireless landscape with two huge nationwide carriers — Baby Bell-owned Verizon and Cingular — and two smaller nationwide carriers — T-Mobile and Nextel. While a Sprint/Nextel merger would create competition between three large nationwide wireless operators, getting regulators to approve a Verizon/Sprint deal “would be a bloody mess,” Entner said.

Tags: Regulation content Policy Rebanding

Most Recent


  • FAA approves beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) flights in North Dakota
    The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) avionics company uAvionix received Federal Aviation Administration approval to conduct advanced beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) flights of small UAVs in North Dakota.  The flights will be conducted at the Northern Plains Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Test Site (NPUASTS) in Grand Forks, one of seven FAA-run UAV test sites in the U.S., using […]
  • Spending American Rescue Plan Act funds: A primer for municipalities
    The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 is a $1.9 trillion legislative package that includes funding for states, local governments and tribal nations to respond to the economic and public health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. While initially restricted, subsequent guidance from the federal government has expanded what those funds can be used for. […]
  • AT&T wireless growth keyed by FirstNet—now provides 24,000 agencies with 4.4 million connections
    AT&T this week reported that FirstNet ended 2022 supporting more than 24,000 public-safety agencies with “about” 4.4 million connections, including 377,000 connections that were added during the last three months of 2022—a total that represents more than half of the carrier’s post-paid wireless growth for the quarter. AT&T officials released these figures in conjunction with […]
  • Report: Remote work causing offices to empty, but walkable cities still in high demand
    Given the reliance on vehicular transportation in the United States, some American cities historically haven’t prioritized being walkable in past planning and or design. But amid an unprecedented shift in the economy toward remote work, those that have are increasingly desirable for prospective residents. A new report from Smart Growth American and Places Platform, “Foot Traffic Ahead […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

To leave a comment login with your Urgent Comms account:

Log in with your Urgent Comms account

Or alternatively provide your name, email address below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Cars, Medicine, Electric Grids: Future hackers will hit much more than networks in an IT/OT integrated world
  • Securing an open-source OS for IoT
  • Let the rebanding begin
    Newscan: Once, superpower summits were about nukes. Now, it’s cyberweapons.
  • Unfinished Business: Why NFPA and IBC fire codes need to kill the fire phone

Commentary


How 5G is making cities safer, smarter, and more efficient

26th January 2023

3GPP moves Release 18 freeze date to March 2024

18th January 2023

Do smart cities make safer cities?

  • 1
6th January 2023
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

Cybercrime ecosystem spawns lucrative underground Gig Economy dlvr.it/ShkKbf

31st January 2023
UrgentComm

FAA approves beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) flights in North Dakota dlvr.it/ShgxHW

30th January 2023
UrgentComm

AT&T boasts of core ‘white box’ success in 5G, fiber push dlvr.it/Shgb4w

30th January 2023
UrgentComm

Spending American Rescue Plan Act funds: A primer for municipalities dlvr.it/ShgZ52

30th January 2023
UrgentComm

AT&T wireless growth keyed by FirstNet—now provides 24,000 agencies with 4.4 million connections dlvr.it/ShY5qH

27th January 2023
UrgentComm

Report: Remote work causing offices to empty, but walkable cities still in high demand dlvr.it/ShXM7Z

27th January 2023
UrgentComm

AT&T FirstNet unleashes robotic dogs for emergency services dlvr.it/ShW7p8

27th January 2023
UrgentComm

Federal agencies infested by cyberattackers via legit remote-management systems dlvr.it/ShVhn3

26th January 2023

Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.