Subject: [NEXTEL-1] OET Engineers Advise Staff On Rival 800 MHz Band Plans

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 09 Sep 2003 01:49:47 -0400

OET Engineers Advise Staff  On Rival 800 MHz Band Plans

Telecommunications Reports

SEPTEMBER 1, 2003 -  The FCC's Office
of Engineering and Technology has
"separated the
technical facts from the technical
fictions" of competing proposals in
the agency's 800 megahertz band
proceeding and concluded that it
would
not be necessary for the frequencies to
be realigned to resolve
commercial interference to public safety
systems, OET Chief Edmond J.
Thomas says.

But he acknowledges that
Commissioners might end up deciding
to
reband the channels after weighing the
costs and benefits of
alternatives. "We understand the pros
and cons of every proposal on the
table right now," Mr. Thomas told
reporters during an Aug. 21 tour of
the agency's laboratory in Columbia,
Md.

Staffers in OET, who are working with
the Wireless Telecommunications
Bureau in the proceeding, are talking
with Commissioners and other
agency staffers about their analysis so
"they will at least understand
fully the technical consequences of
whatever policies they want to deal
with. So we've basically separated the
technical facts from the
technical fictions." OET has sought
additional technical information
from industry parties on issues related
to the interference and met with
them to discuss their proposals.

Nextel Communications, Inc., private
wireless operators, and major
public safety groups are pushing a
"consensus" plan that proposes
realigning the 800 MHz band
frequencies to separate public safety
operations from commercial operators.
Under the plan, Nextel would pay
$850 million to retune or relocate public
safety and private wireless
operators and get 10 MHz of spectrum
in the 1.9 gigahertz band in
exchange for frequencies it would
return in the 700 MHz, 800 MHz, and
900 MHz bands.

A coalition that includes Nextel's
competitors, private wireless
operators, and a few public safety
licensees has proposed an alternative
plan that relies on the use of "best
practices," technical rule changes,
and greater flexibility for licensees to
swap frequencies to reduce or
prevent interference. For its part,
Motorola, Inc., says that radio
receiver design advancements and the
use of best practices could
alleviate most of the interference in the
band without rebanding. The
FCC's lab has conducted tests on public
safety radios to assess why they
experience interference from
commercial operations. The lab has
even
tested an iDEN (integrated digital
enhanced network) transmitter, which
is used by Nextel.

"It is not necessary to do a ubiquitous
rebanding to solve the
interference problem," Mr. Thomas
said. "There is a collection of
technical things you can do that can
mitigate the interference problem,
but that's not to say, from a policy
point of view, you don't want to
reband." Mr. Thomas said that each of
the proposals on the table has
merits and said the Commission could
end up accepting portions of each
of the plans. He said that the
Commission planned to adopt an order
in
the proceeding in the "next couple of
months." "It is an extremely high
priority work in progress," he added,
saying that a draft order has not
yet been prepared.

Although the lab has tested aspects of
the interference problem, "I
would be misleading you to say we've
tested a total compromise plan
because we ain't got one yet," Mr.
Thomas said. "We haven't made up our

mind what we're going to do. This is
like an erector set. We understand
the consequences of the piece parts,
and it would be very easy to
analyze and determine the
consequences of connecting the
blocks."

During an Aug. 20 news conference,
FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell
reiterated that one of the agency's top
priorities was addressing
commercial interference to public safety
systems in the 800 MHz band.

"In some frequency bands we do have
significant problems in this
country [with] ... interference
between commercial services and public

safety first-response services," he said
in response to a question from
a reporter. "That's one of the reasons
the Commission is tackling one of
the most complex proceedings I've
ever been involved in in the 800 MHz
band in an attempt to find ways to
mitigate that interference and
provide long-term solutions so that first
responders continue to have
the spectrum they need
interference-free."

"I would say, in short, it's a high
priority, it's a real problem,
and one that the Commission is going
to really work hard with the
parties to solve," he added.

Stakeholders Continue to Press Cases

Meanwhile, stakeholders are continuing
to lobby the FCC to adopt the
800 MHz band proposals they support.
Opponents of the consensus plan,
for example, recently called Nextel's
promise to pay $850 million to
cover the relocation and retuning costs
of public safety and private
wireless licensees a "mirage."

"Before embarking on a realignment of
the 800 MHz band, the
Commission has a critical responsibility to
ensure that public safety
entities and other 800 MHz band
incumbents will be better off for it,"
the parties, including most of Nextel's
competitors, said in an Aug. 7
ex parte filing in Wireless
Telecommunications docket 02-55.
"Ensuring
adequate funding for relocation is
fundamental to fulfilling this
responsibility." The entities called the
plan's scheme for determining
reimbursable costs "fraught with
uncertainty" and said there was "no
assurance that the money will be
available."

Submitting the filing were ALLTEL
Communications, Inc., AT&T Wireless
Services, Inc., the Cellular
Telecommunications & Internet
Association,
Cingular Wireless LLC, Verizon Wireless,
U.S. Cellular Corp., Cinergy
Corp., the United Telecom Council,
Southern LINC, Consumers Energy Co.,
Duke Energy Corp., the National Rural
Electric Cooperative Association,
and the city of Baltimore.

But public safety groups submitted
their own 81-page filing to the
FCC the same day to counter
arguments of those that oppose the
consensus
plan.

"The consensus plan is the only plan
that provides public safety more
communications capacity to protect,
save, and serve their fellow
citizens," said the filing by the
Association of Public-Safety
Communications Officials-International,
the International Association of
Fire Chiefs, the International Association
of Chiefs of Police, the
Major Cities Chiefs Association, the
National Sheriffs Association, the
Major County Sheriffs Association, and
others.

The public safety groups say the
approach favored by the wireless
carriers and CTIA "does not offer public
safety the comprehensive and
proactive steps necessary to truly begin
to alleviate the very dangerous
problem of interference. Instead, their
approach relies on mitigation
tactics that have failed to stem the
growing problem over the past
several years."

A lobbyist for one of the stakeholders
in the 800 MHz band decision
said the "tone and tenor" of the
proceeding "is heating up." But the
lobbyist added of the FCC, "I don't
think there is a sense of what
they're going to do."

On other issues, Mr. Thomas said during
the tour of the FCC's lab
that the Commission is nearing the
release of additional items following
up on recommendations made last year
by the FCC's spectrum policy task
force. He said the agency planned to
adopt a notice of proposed
rulemaking by the end of the year in a
proceeding exploring permitting
unlicensed use of the TV bands. The
Commission adopted a notice of
inquiry last year.

Also expected by the end of the year
are NOIs or NPRMs on the use of
cognitive radios and an "interference
temperature" in frequencies, Mr.
Thomas said. An NPRM in the
Commission's broadband over powerline

proceeding is expected at the
beginning of next year.

Regarding the interference
temperature proceeding, Mr. Thomas
said
the Commission planned to seek
comments on whether it should test
the
process in specific frequencies. "This is
another area we want to be
cautious in," he said. He said the
agency would seek views on testing
the temperature "in a limited portion of
the band where there's the
highest probability of doing no harm."

During the tour, FCC officials said the
lab had begun testing
ultrawideband (UWB) devices to
develop a database on their
interference
characteristics. Such knowledge is
important because it is likely
entities will ask the Commission in the
future to loosen its UWB rules,
Mr. Thomas said. So far, the
Commission has authorized 10 to 15
UWB
devices, including two indoor
communications products and a number
of
imaging products such as ground
penetrating radar, according to Rashmi
Doshi, the lab's chief. Mr. Thomas said
companies are beginning to give
the lab more UWB devices designed for
consumer use.

WWW.SCAMPLA http://www.consensusplan.org/plugin/template/consensus/21/1115 N.ORG

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