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Summary:
Legislation has been introduced, and other legislation may be under
consideration, for the 108th Congress regarding possible actions by the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) to relocate some public safety wireless users
to new frequencies. There have been an increasing number of reported incidents of
transmission interference with public safety communications, leading the FCC to
consider proposals to mitigate certain types of interference. The interference usually
takes the form of dropped calls or dead spaces with radio transmissions - primarily
to or from first responders - in certain frequencies. Many of the impacted public
safety frequency assignments are placed close to commercial frequencies. The
predominate user of the frequencies that are interleaved with public safety radio
operations is the wireless company Nextel Communications, Inc. The majority of
documented incidents of interference have been attributed to Nextel's network.
The FCC is considering, as its solution to the problem indicated above, a plan
based on a proposal from Nextel, first proffered in the form of a White Paper
published in November 2001. The objective of the FCC's plan is to reassign
frequencies in what is referred to as the 800 MHz band so that public safety users
would be grouped together and interference reduced or eliminated. To achieve this,
Nextel would vacate frequencies for reallocation to public safety and, in turn,
frequencies vacated by public safety and others would be reassigned to Nextel.
Nextel would be required by the FCC to pay an undetermined amount (Nextel has
most recently suggested a cap of $850 million) to move public safety users to new
assignments. To compensate Nextel for the loss of certain spectrum and for paying
some of the costs of rebanding (the process of relocating to other frequencies), the
FCC would provide new spectrum to Nextel. Controversy over Nextel's and other
proposals has escalated to the point that the two major opposing viewpoints are
documented through special websites. These are [http://www.consenusplan.org], for
Nextel; and [http://www.Fix800Mhznow.com], prepared by the Cellular
Telecommunications and Internet Association.
There are a number of policy questions that this plan raises for Congress. There
are ongoing, unresolved debates about whether rebanding is necessary to eliminate
interference, whether public safety users affected by rebanding will be fully
compensated for the cost of relocating as part of a rebanding plan, and whether it is
appropriate for the FCC to assign new spectrum for the use of a commercial entity
without recourse to the auction process, which provides funds to federal general
revenue. Other issues concerning spectrum policy have also been raised regarding
the FCC's proposed plan. H.R. 4715 (Representative Nussle) addresses one of these
issues - bypassing the auction process - with a proposed amendment to the
Communications Act of 1934 [47 U.S.C. 309 (j) (1).]
