Nextel spectrum plan riles private wireless users

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By Bob Brewin

(IDG) -- FedEx Corp. could incur expenses of $100 million to reconfigure the wireless system that supports its mobile package-tracking systems under a spectrum reallocation proposal developed by Nextel Communications Inc.

The shipper is one of many business and industrial wireless system users that will be hit by high costs if the proposal successfully makes it through the Washington regulatory rounds, according to the Industrial Telecommunications Association (ITA), an industry group that opposes the measure.

The Nextel proposal is designed to ensure interference-free spectrum for police and fire department communications and could soon be formally considered by the Federal Communications Commission.

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If approved by the FCC, the plan would reconfigure the 800-MHz spectrum band to reduce interference. The 800-MHz band consists of interleaved channels carrying data from users such as Memphis-based FedEx, police and fire departments, and Nextel, which operates a cellularlike radio network in the band, with interference the inevitable result.

Nextel, a Reston, Virginia-based company majority-owned by cellular phone billionaire Craig McCaw, proposed solving these problems by moving private wireless operations over other bands, clearing the 800-MHz band for itself and the public safety agencies.

The FCC could carve out an interference-free slice of the band for public safety users as early as this summer, according to industry sources. At the same time, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an agency under the U.S. Commerce Department, is expected to release a report within weeks outlining the importance of private wireless systems used by "critical infrastructure" industries such as FedEx, Aeronautical Radio Inc. (Arinc), utilities and railroads.

According to the ITA, the Nextel proposal would be "an unmitigated disaster for America's industrial, transportation and utility sectors." In a letter to the FCC, the ITA added that the Nextel plan could disrupt "mission-critical communications and impose billions of dollars of costs on American businesses to relocate operational communications systems that are not causing any interference to public safety operations."

The proposal could also derail plans by Annapolis, Maryland-based Arinc, a leading air-to-ground communications company, to field a highly secure wireless system to support critical airline operations, including bag-matching systems at the top 15 U.S. airports, according to Kris Hutchinson, the company's senior director of frequency management. Hutchinson estimated that the Nextel plan could cost his company $160 million if Arinc had to shift frequencies and buy new voice and data digital wireless equipment.

Nextel suggested to the FCC that it move private wireless users to the 700- or 900-MHz bands. But Arinc's Hutchinson said he didn't "know of any" manufacturer of digital radios in the 700-MHz or 900-MHz bands capable of meeting Arinc's requirements.

The Nextel proposal has solid backing from a wide range of public safety communications organizations, including the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International Inc. in Daytona Beach, Florida, and police and fire chiefs associations. The public safety agencies would have to shift some spectrum assignments, but Nextel said it would provide $500 million to fund the change, though it hasn't provided funding to reallocate the private wireless systems.

But the private wireless users sharply question the Nextel approach. "This is a problem that Nextel created but wants to solve at everyone else's expense," Hutchinson said.

Laura Smith, president of the ITA, said that public safety agencies "need to have access to interference-free spectrum" but that the FCC needs to develop a band plan that will accommodate all users. Larry Krevor, vice president of government affairs at Nextel, said interference "is not just a Nextel problem," adding that the company's band proposal would "accommodate all users."

Meribeth McCarrick, an FCC spokeswoman, said the commission "in general is looking at reducing interference in the 800-MHz band" to assure interference-free operation for public safety users but couldn't provide a solid date for the start of a rule-making process.