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Nextel and FCC Swap Bandwidth
evilninja writes "Techweb is reporting on the sale of 10MHz worth of bandwidth to Nextel by the FCC. One term of the agreement will solve a problem that has been frustrating the FCC for some time. Nextel will return some of their bandwidth to the public domain, since it has been interfering with local emergency channels in some areas."
The spectrum is a public trust and if the FCC can eliminate the interference without killing off the company that they issued the origional spectrum to they should. Verizon is stupid for demanding that the spectrum be auctioned to the highest bidder because Nextel and the FCC are doing what is in the publics best interest.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
So the FCC couldn't just force Nextel to stop useing the bandwidth that was used for emergeny channels?
That's what I was wondering. If my car blocks a fire hydrant, they tow it. If my house blocks the path for a new highway, they tear it down. Apparently, eminent domain only applies to the little guy.
What happens to Nextel customers with phones that operate on the frequencies that they just sold back to the feds? Do the customers now "get to" buy a new phone from Nextel (with a new two year service contract, I assume)? If so, it sounds like a windfall for Nextel.
That would be against the Constitution, you know, that pesky little document that is the supreme law of the land. In Ammendment 5 it declares "nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." This is why you are paid if a city emmenent domains your house to build a highway. They'd much rather just force you out and not have to pay. That would be better for the public good, since it wouldn't require using taxpayer dollars to pay for your house. Rather unfair to you, hence why Ammendment 5 is in there.
Well, same basic protections apply to corperations. When they buy something, be it land, or slices of RF, they expect that it then belongs to them. Now they can face emmenent domain too, but just like individuals, they need to be compensated. If you get down to it, it's just basic kindergarden level concepts of fairness. You don't take something from someone without giving them something in return.
And trust me, you don't want a government that can just take shit for "the public good" because that WILL get abused.
I believe that in this case the FCC is entirely to blame. Isn't it their chartered duty to make sure that crap like this doesn't happen.
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
So in worst case scenario Nextel PTT service would be hit. More grief to local construction crews, some joy for people eating out at local chinese buffet [Prr-BEEP] JOHN GET YOUR $%^$ HERE, MIKE JUST SCREWED UP THE LINING ON THE SECOND FLOOR.
But seriously -- this plan is quite old.
See this article (Motorola drops 800 MHz bomb)
Hyperom.com
Won't Nextel incur significant costs to facilitate this switch anyway, partially offsetting what other companies see as a "giveaway"? Yes, actually. The FCC is making Nextel acquire a 2.5 Billion Dollar letter of credit, to facilitate switching all the existing sytems. $2.5B liquid dollars isn't anything to laugh about. Also, per RCRNews.com: "If the relocation costs, including Nextel's own costs plus the value of the spectrum it relinquishes, is less than $4.8 billion, Nextel will pay an anti-windfall payment to the U.S. Treasury." Basically, it's going to cost Nextel close to 5 Billion dollars to do this whole thing, one way or another. And the kicker is that they just had to shell out to do this very thing not a year ago, when they started moving people around in the 800MHZ band. We had to retune about 22 repeaters(at Nextel's expense, but it was still a pain). I have no sympathy for Nextel in this matter. They still interfere with some of our channels and it's a bitch to track down. That whole system has been nothing but a pain in our ass. 2 out of 3 of the interference problems we have are usually nextel related, and those phones make damn near everything in my office flicker or go tick tick tick tick... I'm done, I promise. :)
They're spending close to $5B in spectrum and cash for a solid 10MHz block in the 1.9GHz band. The spectrum that they're trading in (non-contiguous chunks in the 600-700MHz bands) is woth about 1.6Billion, sure. But the cost of retuning all those other license holders is gonna run close to $3.2B. And if Nextel doesn't spend that much while doing this switch, then they have to pay the diff. to the treasury in an anti-windfall payment.
Did Nextel (and the FCC) way undervalue a solid 10MHz block in the 1.9GHz band? Yes. But Nextel isn't walking away with this spectrum, either. It's gonna cost them $4.8B to do this, any way you look at it. That's not chump change.