Howard Buskirk

MONTREAL -- Nextel officials were still reviewing the Commission’s 800 MHz rebanding report on Mon. The order, released late Fri. (CD Aug 8 Special Report), spells out in detail how the rebanding will work, potential penalties Nextel faces for noncompliance, and milestones for completion. A few critical issues remain, especially working out agreements with Canada and Mexico on cross-border issues, officials said, and the rebanding requires Nextel’s agreement.

In what’s being promoted as a “historic first” the FCC has certified Freescale’s XS110 chipset, which uses the company’s version of ultra-wideband technology, Freescale planned to announce today (Mon.). The development means limited products using the chips could be shipped in the next 6 months, sources said.

Nextel made a follow up filing at the FCC, providing technical justification for its arguments that the H-block can be safely used by licensed devices. Nextel officials met with staff from the Office of Engineering & Technology to present a paper by duplexer manufacturer Agilent, which found that safe use of the spectrum is possible. A CTIA-led group, including other wireless carriers and technology makers, has weighed in against opening the band for auction. Nextel argued in an ex parte filing that using existing technology Agilent can manufacture a partial-band duplexer that includes H-block “with out-of-band-emissions performance identical to the duplexers” used in existing PCS handsets. Nextel said the manufacturer acknowledges it can’t produce a full-band A- H block duplexer. But the filing argued that interference shouldn’t be a concern. “The possibility of mobile-to-mobile interference depends entirely on the coincident occurrence of numerous events,” Nextel advised: “Nextel believes these events are highly unlikely to occur simultaneously.” Nextel said even if they did occur at the same time “one of the many requisite precursors for potential interference that Agilent identifies is that both handsets must be at the very edge of coverage: The interfering handset must transmit at maximum power and victim handset must operate at maximum sensitivity.” Nextel, which is scheduled to get adjacent G- block spectrum as part of the 800 MHz rebanding plan, is viewed by some of its peers as the carrier most likely to benefit from an H-block sale.

On the eve of a critical filing deadline on USF distribution issues, Western Wireless Chmn. John Stanton said that if the fund is expanded to pay for rural broadband rollout, wireless carriers will be in line for funds. The remarks came as NTCA and OPASTCO released a report heavily critical of the carrier’s pursuit of USF funding.

FCC Chmn. Powell confirmed Wed. the FCC is considering an order that would establish an auction for H-band spectrum. Powell said he was aware of industry efforts to head off the auction. A group of carriers were at the FCC last week to argue that the use of the spectrum would lead to unacceptable levels of interference.

The FCC ordered wireless carriers and satellite operators to report outage information to the FCC -- a move largely opposed by carriers. The Commission made clear that the information won’t be made public, but it will reside at the FCC and be shared with the Dept. of Homeland Security. Edmond Thomas, chief of the Office of Engineering & Technology said carriers will largely have to wait for the order’s release to get a better idea of what will constitute a reportable “outage,” a major issue as the order was completed.

CTIA said in a filing at the FCC it would support the agency making available a single 20 MHz block to be auctioned on a RSA/MSA basis if the Commission moves forward on a long- pending auction for advanced wireless services. CTIA said it can’t support a Rural Cellular Assn. (RCA) proposal to make several blocks available, but could support offering a single block in a form that may be more attractive to small carriers. Sources say the RSA/MSA level is the smallest the FCC appears willing to consider as it takes up an auction of spectrum in the 1.7 GHz and 2.1 GHz bands. CTIA said taking this step “would be an appropriate means of encouraging effective small and rural carrier participation in the AWS auction.” CTIA initially opposed a RCA petition seeking more spectrum for smaller license areas. “RCA has been trying to persuade CTIA to support more spectrum for small license areas,” David Nace, RCA gen. counsel told us Tues. “We think it’s a step in the right direction.” CTIA and RCA have found common areas of agreement on auction issues in recent days. Last week, RCA said, in support of CTIA that while it didn’t necessarily support a complete end to all set-asides for designated entities it views bid credits as a more effective mechanism for making sure small carriers are victorious in spectrum auctions.

A new report on wireless directory assistance (DA) by the Pierz Group, funded in part by wireless carriers, found that Americans appear increasingly open to having their wireless phone numbers listed, especially if they have some privacy safeguards. The survey found specifically that at least a quarter would opt-in to the type of DA under consideration by the CTIA.

Wireless carriers descended on the FCC last week for a series of meetings to point to potential major interference problems that could be caused to other PCS communications if the H-block spectrum is made available at auction (CD July 21 p2). The group argued that “nothing can be done” that would eliminate interference risks. Carrier sources said they sought the meetings only after it became clear that the FCC may look at auctioning H-block spectrum in an item at its Sept. meeting.

Wireless carriers told the FCC “ample” evidence exists for the Commission to launch a rulemaking on Auction 58 to decide whether to change the rules giving designated entities (DEs) a set-aside for some licenses. But DEs disagreed, saying the numbers demonstrate they would win few licenses at auction without the set-aside.