Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) to FCC: Don't Give Valuable Spectrum Away

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 23:34:49 -0500

VZ To Timmy: "I'm At You"-

Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) to FCC: Don't Give
Valuable Spectrum Away

http://www.cagw.org/site/

WASHINGTON, March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- In opposition to the Nextel
Consensus Plan, Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW
http://www.cagw.org/site/ ) President Tom Schatz sent the following
letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell,
National Telecommunications and Information Administration Acting
Assistant Secretary Michael Gallagher, Senate Budget Committee members,
Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee members, House
Budget Committee members, and House Energy and Commerce Committee
members:

On behalf of the one million members and supporters of the Council for
Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), I am writing to express our
opposition to the Nextel Consensus Plan that is currently before the
Federal Communications Commission.  While the plan purports to solve a
public safety issue, it really is an attempt to obtain contiguous blocks
of valuable spectrum at no cost.

Currently, Nextel uses fragmented, non-nationwide spectrum in the 700,
800 and 900 MHz bands, which would bring at auction approximately $1.2
billion.  Utilizing these bands has caused interference with public
safety radio systems which operate in the 800 MHz band.  Nextel has
proposed that it will vacate its various spectrum bands in an even
exchange for 10 MHz of prime nationwide spectrum in the valuable 1.9 GHz
band.  The value of this contiguous spectrum has been estimated to be
worth as much as $7 billion if sold at auction.  It is ironic that this
plan could give Nextel nearly a $5 billion windfall to "correct" an
interference problem it caused in the first place.  While Nextel
proposes to pay $700 million cost to help relocate public safety bands
elsewhere, the carrier admits in its FCC filing that its plan would
still not end the interference.  In addition, that amount is less than
half of the estimated $1.5 - $2.5 billion that may be needed to remedy
the interference problems.
Since Congress gave the FCC the authority to use competitive bidding or
public auctions for the electromagnetic spectrum, the process has
returned some $14.4 billion for the taxpayers since 1994.  There are
several other proposals before the FCC that address the public safety
issue while making sure that taxpayers are protected.  We urge you to
adopt one of those proposals and reject the Nextel plan.

CCAGW agrees that protecting our country and fighting terrorism requires
that the public safety bands operate without interference.  However,
considering the size of the deficit, the government cannot afford to
simply give away a valuable asset such as spectrum.

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of
Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation's largest nonpartisan,
nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and
mismanagement in government.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=SVBIZINK1.story&STORY=/www/story/03-03-2004/0002121804&EDATE=WED+Mar+03+2004,+05:32+PM

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    "NEXTEL-1 IT'S NOT JUST NEXTEL"
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