PROMOTING PUBLIC SAFETY 
COMMUNICATIONS

_________

REALIGNING THE 800 MHz LAND MOBILE RADIO BAND TO RECTIFY 
COMMERCIAL MOBILE RADIO  PUBLIC SAFETY INTERFERENCE 
AND ALLOCATE ADDITIONAL SPECTRUM TO MEET CRITICAL 
PUBLIC SAFETY NEEDS

Nextel Communications, Inc.

2001 Edmund Halley Drive
Reston, VA  20191

November 21, 200

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I.	INTRODUCTION	4

II.	EXECUTIVE SUMMARY	7

A.	The Problem	7
B.	The Solution	7
C.	Public Interest Benefits	9

III.	NEXTELS INTEREST IN THE REALIGNMENT PROPOSAL	9

IV.	BACKGROUND	11

A.	The Current 800 MHz Band Plan	11
B.	CMRS-Public Safety Interference in the 800 MHz Band	14
C.	Efforts to Address CMRS - Public Safety Interference in
	the 800 MHz Band	16

V.	THE CAUSES OF CMRS  PUBLIC SAFETY INTERFERENCE
	AND THE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMUNITY'S NEED FOR 
	ADDITIONAL SPECTRUM	18

A.	The Mixed Licensing of Public Safety, Private and 
	Commercial Systems Throughout the 800 MHz Band
	is the Fundamental Cause of CMRS  Public Safety Interference	19
B.	800 MHz Realignment Will Create the Spectrum Allocations 
	Necessary to Mitigate CMRS  Public Safety Interference	23
C.	The Public Safety Community Needs Additional Spectrum for
	Communications Services	25

VI.	PROMOTING PUBLIC SAFETY BY REALIGNING THE 800 MHZ
	BAND AND ALLOCATING ADDITIONAL SPECTRUM TO 
	PUBLIC SAFETY COMMUNICATIONS	28

A.	The Realignment Plan	28
B.	Additional Measures To Prevent CMRS  Public Safety Interference	31
C.	Using Mandatory Retuning and Special Frequency 
	Coordinators to Implement the 800 MHz Realignment	37
D.	CMRS Licensees Should Fund the Bulk of Public Safetys
	Retuning Costs	39
E.	Using Voluntary Retuning and Special Frequency Coordinators
	for Realignment of B/ILT and Noise-Limited Traditional SMR Licensees	42
F.	Implementation Timetable	46

VII.	LEGAL AUTHORITY	48

A.  Authority to Mandate Incumbent Relocation	48
B.  The Ashbacker Doctrine and Section 309(j) Are Not Implicated by
	the 800 MHz Realignment Plan	51

VIII.	MOBILE SATELLITE SERVICE CONSIDERATIONS	55

A.	Effect on Pending MSS Rulemakings	55
B.	Relocation of Incumbent Broadcast Auxiliary Service and Fixed 
	Service Licensees in the 2020/2025 and 2170/2175 MHz Bands	56

IX.	CONCLUSION	59

I. INTRODUCTION
	This White Paper recommends that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or 
Commission) expeditiously commence a rulemaking proceeding to correct the causes of 
interference between commercial wireless and public safety radio communications systems in 
the 800 MHz band.  As part of this initiative, the Commission should allocate additional 
spectrum at 800 MHz for public safety communications systems vital to the safety of life and 
property and our nations security.  Specifically, the Commission should realign the 36 MHz of 
800 MHz Land Mobile Radio spectrum, 806/824 - 851/869 MHz, to mitigate radio frequency 
(RF) interference between Commercial Mobile Radio Systems (CMRS) and Public Safety 
Radio Communications Systems and to double the amount of 800 MHz spectrum available for 
primary use by public safety communications systems.  
	Since 1996, the FCC has been seeking solutions to the various communications problems 
faced by the public safety community, including inadequate spectrum access and barriers to 
interoperability.   The Commission has acknowledged that public safety agencies have scarce 
available spectrum, particularly in large metropolitan areas,  and recently received a petition 
reiterating public safetys critical need for additional spectrum to meet the communications 
challenges of this decade.   Public safety providers need additional spectrum now to enhance 
interoperability among police, fire, rescue and emergency management personnel, provide 
advanced video and data communications services, increase systems capacity for both life safety 
and public works uses, and improve communications reliability and redundancy.  
	There is also a critical need to implement an effective, long-term solution to the 
increasing levels of CMRS - public interference in the 800 MHz band.  The CMRS industry and 
the public safety community, along with the FCC staff, have worked together over the past two 
years to identify the causes of this interference.  These efforts have determined that the 
fundamental cause of the problem is the increasingly incompatible mix of mobile 
communications licensees in the 800 MHz band.  Mitigating CMRS  public safety interference 
requires, among other things, realigning the 800 MHz Land Mobile Radio spectrum so that 
public safety and commercial services operate in separate contiguous spectrum blocks.    
	To achieve these essential public interest objectives, the Commission should immediately 
initiate a rulemaking proceeding with the goal of adopting the necessary rule changes within six 
months. This realignment plan will affect many users of this spectrum, including Specialized 
Mobile Radio systems (SMR), Business Radio and Industrial/Land Transportation Radio 
(B/ILT) systems and Public Safety Communications systems.  It will also affect and 
substantially benefit Cellular Radio Telecommunications (cellular) systems.  Although these 
actions will impose short-term costs on the affected parties, no private radio or commercial 
licensee will experience a net gain or loss in the amount of spectrum it currently holds.  These 
parties will benefit in the long-term because they will be relieved of the burdens associated with 
ongoing coordination requirements, including operating restrictions and channel deployment 
limitations necessary to protect public safety communications systems from interference.  
Additionally, although it is not necessary to relocate cellular licensees in the upper portion of the 
800 MHz band, 824/849  869/894 MHz, these licensees increasingly are the cause of CMRS  
public safety interference and will need to undertake mitigation responsibilities to help achieve 
an effective, long-term solution to CMRS  public safety interference.  The proposed 
realignment offers an equitable approach in which all involved categories of licensees would 
share the benefits and burdens in implementing a solution that enables public safety providers to 
serve the public more effectively and more reliably.    
	Public safety agencies are facing enormous challenges in light of the recent terrorist 
attacks on our nation.  As PSWN has observed, the tragic events of September 11, 2001 have 
underscored the need for public safety response and coordination on a massive, unprecedented 
scale.   Congress has recently emphasized the need to address this challenge,  and the FCC has 
just announced the creation of a Homeland Security Policy Council composed of senior staff 
officials from throughout the Commission.  The Council is charged with ensuring that public 
safety, health and other emergency and defense personnel have effective communications 
available to them to assist the public as needed.   The actions recommended by this White Paper 
 realigning the 800 MHz Land Mobile Radio band and the allocation of an additional 10 MHz 
of readily useable spectrum for public safety services  will address these critical needs. 
II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A. The Problem  

	This White Paper explains the reasons for the increasing incidence of CMRS  public 
safety interference in the 800 MHz band.  Public safety and CMRS systems are operating 
essentially incompatible wireless system designs on adjacent, interleaved and mixed 800 MHz 
channels.  The result is interference to public safety communications in the vicinity of CMRS 
base stations -- even though all licensees are operating in compliance with the FCCs rules and 
the terms and conditions of their FCC licenses.   In addition, public safety communicators have 
an urgent need for additional spectrum in the near-term to support enhanced and improved 
communications to protect life, property and national security.  This White Paper concludes that, 
to make additional spectrum available for Public Safety at 800 MHz and solve CMRS  public 
safety interference, some 800 MHz incumbents must move from their current channel 
assignments. 
B.	The Solution
The optimum solution is to realign the 36 MHz of 800 MHz public safety/CMRS 
spectrum by creating two separate (adjacent) contiguous channel blocks: 20 MHz to Public 
Safety (channels 1  400), and 16 MHz (channels 401  720) to commercial digital wireless 
networks.  Public safety is currently allocated 9.5 MHz at 800 MHz; this proposal would more 
than double public safetys allocation to 20 MHz.  To clear space for the public safety block, 
Nextel (the predominant incumbent commercial licensee with 18 MHz at 800 MHz) would 
relocate its licenses in channels 1 - 400 (8+ MHz of the total 20 MHz) to other spectrum at its 
own cost.  Nextel will also contribute its 700 MHz Guard Band (4 MHz) and 900 MHz SMR 
licenses (4 of the 5 MHz SMR allocation at 900 MHz) to make spectrum available for relocating 
800 MHz B/ILT incumbents and high-site (non-cellular) SMR incumbents from the new public 
safety block.  
In return for the 16 MHz Nextel would contribute for these purposes, Nextel would be 
licensed replacement spectrum as follows: (1) 6 MHz at 821/824  866/869 MHz (the current 
NPSPAC channels) made available by consolidating and expanding the Public Safety spectrum 
in channels 1-400; and (2) a 10 MHz contiguous block from the reserve Mobile Satellite Service 
("MSS") spectrum at 2.1 GHz, reallocated for terrestrial CMRS service and licensed to Nextel on 
a nationwide basis.  
Incumbent B/ILT and non-cellular SMRs could remain at 800 MHz in the new public 
safety block on a secondary, non-interference basis where that arrangement is possible and 
desired by the parties, i.e., tertiary and rural markets, or temporarily until public safety entities 
need the spectrum. The Commission should, however, create incentives for B/ILT and non-
cellular SMRs to relocate expeditiously to the vacant 700 MHz or 900 MHz channels.  
The 6 MHz of NPSPAC channels, in combination with the 10 MHz (816/821 - 861/866) 
already licensed for advanced technology SMR systems, would become a 16 MHz low power, 
low-site, digital SMR channel block.  Nextel would move its operations in the new public safety 
block to this advanced SMR block, as would any other digital advanced SMR incumbent 
licensee in the new public safety block.  
Nextel would commit to fund up to $500 million of the costs of relocating incumbent 800 
MHz public safety incumbents -- primarily from the NPSPAC channels to channels 1  400.   
Cellular operators should also contribute to public safety retuning costs, as should other CMRS 
licensees benefiting from the proposed 800 MHz realignment.   

C.	Public Interest Benefits  
	Realigning the 800 MHz band would rationalize the current spectrum hodgepodge that 
fundamentally causes CMRS  public safety interference, thereby creating the spectrum 
allocations that make it possible ultimately to virtually eliminate CMRS  public safety 
interference on a nationwide, long-term basis.  It would more than double the public safety 
spectrum allocation at 800 MHz from 9.5 MHz of interleaved channels to 20 MHz of contiguous 
spectrum -- providing near-term spectrum relief in a band where equipment is readily available 
and that is adjacent to the future 700 MHz public safety channel block.  No private or 
commercial licensee would experience a net gain or loss of spectrum, but all would be relieved 
of current interference-related burdens and have greater freedom to expand their networks in the 
future.  
III. NEXTELS INTEREST IN THE REALIGNMENT PROPOSAL
	As the predominant commercial licensee in the 800 MHz Land Mobile Radio band, 
Nextel holds numerous geographic area and site-by-site licenses that are adjacent to, interleaved 
with and mixed among public safety communications license assignments.  Nextel is the fifth 
largest CMRS carrier in the nation, providing a unique combination of cellular, short messaging, 
internet access, data transmission and Direct Connect? -- a digital two-way radio feature that 
enables subscribers to reach other Nextel customers with the push of a button even if they are 
hundreds of miles away.  As Nextel expands its network to provide enhanced coverage and 
increased capacity to serve its more than eight million customers, it finds itself unintentionally 
causing, along with other CMRS licensees, interference to public safety communications in a 
number of major metropolitan areas around the nation.  Given its position as the primary 
incumbent CMRS licensee in the Land Mobile Radio band, any realignment or consolidation of 
the 800 MHz public safety or commercial spectrum will require Nextels cooperation.  
	Nextel submits this White Paper proposing a plan for 800 MHz realignment because it 
establishes the basis for an effective, long-term solution to CMRS  public safety interference.   
Nextel has expended significant staff and financial resources to mitigate interference to public 
safety communications on a case-by-case basis, including voluntarily agreeing to limit use of its 
licensed frequencies at certain sites, reducing power, reorienting antennas and similar measures.   
It has taken these actions voluntarily to safeguard the reliability of public safety communications, 
and thus the safety of emergency response personnel and the public they protect, even though 
Nextel is operating in full compliance with the FCCs rules and regulations.  
	Cellular licensees are also a source of interference to public safety systems and are 
finding it necessary to take similar actions to alleviate CMRS  public safety interference.  As 
discussed herein, cellular A-band operators are causing interference to public safety 
communications in cities across the nation; in some cases, B-band cellular operators contribute to 
the interference.  It is very difficult to coordinate the dynamic frequency reuse plans of multiple 
cellular-type commercial providers to protect nearby public safety communications systems from 
interference on a case-by-case basis.   This approach imposes considerable burdens on all 
affected licensees and is limited in its effectiveness.  Moreover, the burdens and difficulties of 
case-by-case remediation will only increase as all 800 MHz systems  both commercial and 
public safety  evolve to meet expanding demand for enhanced wireless communications 
services.  
	For all of these reasons, Nextel proffers the proposed realignment plan as a means of 
alleviating CMRS  public safety interference by implementing a rational band plan for 800 
MHz Land Mobile Radio use.  This plan would correct the spectrum allocation and licensing 
practices that are at the root of the CMRS  public safety interference problem while providing 
growth opportunities for affected public safety, CMRS, B/ILT and high-site SMR systems.  
Nextel is also willing to contribute a substantial amount of spectrum as well as financial and 
human resources to the plans implementation.  Nextel would gain no additional spectrum under 
the proposed realignment plan; in fact, Nextel would incur a net loss of approximately 0.5 MHz 
of spectrum.  In exchange for the substantial contribution it is willing to make to the proposed 
plan, Nextel would be relieved of the burdens and risks involved in its current efforts to address 
CMRS - public safety interference.  Nextel would also benefit by replacing its channel 
assignments in the 700 MHz, 800 MHz, and 900 MHz bands with two blocks of contiguous 
spectrum:  16 MHz at 800 MHz (of which Nextel is already licensed for a 10 MHz contiguous 
block) and 10 MHz at 2.1 GHz reallocated from the MSS band that has not been assigned to any 
MSS licensee.
IV.	BACKGROUND
A. The Current 800 MHz Band Plan
	Over the past 30 years, the Commission has allocated spectrum for and licensed a variety 
of wireless communications services at 800 MHz.  Communications services in this band include 
public safety communications systems  the radio networks used by police, fire and rescue 
personnel  as well as other state and local governmental services.  They include the private 
systems licensed to businesses and industrial facilities to provide internal network wireless 
communications in and around manufacturing plants and for businesses.  The 800 MHz spectrum 
is also home to commercial wireless providers, including the two cellular licensees in each local 
market and SMR licensees. These commercial providers compete, along with Personal 
Communications Service (PCS) providers, to offer Americans a variety of competitively 
priced wireless communications services that have become an essential part of contemporary 
life.
 The current 800 MHz band plan dates back to 1974, when the Commission reallocated 
former UHF television channels 70  83, and 35 MHz of federal government spectrum, to Land 
Mobile Radio Systems.   It earmarked 40 MHz of this spectrum for cellular systems, 30 MHz for 
conventional and trunked radio systems, and held the remainder in reserve.   Under this 
technology-based allocation, applicants desiring to operate conventional land mobile radio 
systems could apply for channels from the 100 channel conventional service allocation, 
regardless of whether the applicant planned to provide communications support to public safety 
providers, a private network, or commercial wireless services to third parties.   An applicant 
intending to operate trunked systems could apply for 5, 10, 15 or 20 channel groups from the 
upper 200 trunked channel allocation, again without regard to whether the applicant would use 
them in a private business network, offer for-profit commercial services, or dedicate its network 
to supporting police, fire, rescue and other public safety or public works services.  
 Given existing technological capabilities in 1974, system designers feared that the 
channels used in a multiple channel network would interfere with each other.  Since 1974, 
therefore, the FCCs overriding concern in licensing 800 MHz land mobile trunked systems (and 
in assigning additional channels to conventional systems) has been to prevent interference 
between providers or users of the same communications service (intrasystem interference) by 
assigning channels one megahertz apart, rather than assigning contiguous channels.   Until 
recently, the Commission believed that interference between providers or users of different 
communications services (intersystem interference) would not be a problem in its 800 MHz 
spectrum allocation and channel assignment decisions.    
 As a result, 800 MHz commercial land mobile radio licenses are not contained in 
discrete, separate blocks or sub-bands, as is the case for cellular and PCS licensees, but are 
spread almost randomly throughout the land mobile band, separated only by co-channel base 
station distance requirements.  Public safety, B/ILT and commercial providers are interleaved, 
mixed and adjacent to each other creating a hodgepodge of different types of service providers  
sometimes sharing the same channels (but separated by specified co-channel distances), and 
sometimes using adjacent channels.  The fact that the cellular allocation is adjacent to the 
NPSPAC channels creates an even more complicated mix of spectrum uses and technologies and 
further exacerbates the potential for interference.  This situation posed no apparent problems 
when all licensees were using the same technology; i.e., a few high-power, high-site transmitters 
serving an entire metropolitan area.  CMRS licensees, however, have now adopted more efficient 
system architectures that employ multiple base stations and frequency reuse techniques to 
achieve the network capacity to meet growing consumer demand for their services.  As described 
in section V.A. below, the use of these differing system architectures in the 800 MHz band has 
created locally disparate signal strengths that, under certain circumstances, cause interference to 
public safety communications systems.   
B. CMRS-Public Safety Interference in the 800 MHz Band
In the past few years, there have been numerous reports regarding CMRS - public safety 
interference in the 800 MHz band in municipalities across the country.  In a typical incident, a 
police officer or firefighter finds that his or her mobile radio does not work well  or at all  in 
areas near CMRS base stations where communications had previously been satisfactory.   
Interference to public safety radios raises serious public interest concerns, as public safety 
officials use these radios to provide communications supporting life safety services, such as 
police, fire and rescue services, as well as other governmental functions including road 
maintenance, trash collection, security services, traffic management, snow removal and similar 
public works services. 
CMRS  public safety interference has been reported in about 25 cities throughout the 
nation including Seattle, Washington; Miami, Florida; Hialeah, Florida; Orange County, 
California; Phoenix, Arizona; Baltimore, Maryland; and Salt Lake City, Utah.  These reports are 
becoming more frequent with the increased buildout of commercial wireless networks that use 
advanced cellular-type, multiple base station architecture to place a strong localized signal on 
the ground relative to the signal strength found in public safety networks using one or a few 
distant base stations to cover a large area.  These factors create conditions in which interference 
is likely, despite the fact that all affected parties are operating their communications systems in 
full compliance with the Commissions rules and the parameters of their FCC licenses.  In some 
cases, a commercial SMR operator such as Nextel is the sole source or a contributing source of 
interference to public safety systems.  A cellular operator can be the sole source of CMRS  
public safety interference, and cellular operators can combine with each other or with 
commercial SMR operators to cause interference -- particularly when using co-located base 
station sites.     
For example, officers of the City of Denver Police Department experienced disruptive 
interference on their 800 MHz mobile communications system in the immediate vicinity of 
approximately 20 Nextel base stations  largely due to intermodulation products formed in the 
officers radios  even though Nextel was operating in full compliance with the Commissions 
rules.   Interference has disrupted police communications in the vicinity of co-located Nextel and 
AT&T Wireless (the cellular A-band licensee) base stations in the nearby cities of Cherry Hills 
and Westminster, Colorado.  The Maui, Hawaii Police Department reported that its officers 
handsets and mobile units were experiencing interference at a heavily-trafficked shopping center 
near the co-located base stations of the cellular A band licensee, AT&T Wireless, and Nextel 
Partners.   The interference resulted primarily from AT&T Wirelesss operations on frequencies 
adjacent to the channels licensed to the police communications system, with a secondary 
contribution from Nextel Partners co-located transmissions. 
In Oregon, the City of Portland and the Washington County Consolidated 
Communications Agency (WCCCA) identified interference in the immediate vicinity of a 
number of Nextel base stations.  Working together, WCCCA and Nextel engineers have resolved 
most of these situations; however, as WCCCA expands its communications network 
geographically into adjacent counties and into the NPSPAC channels  to meet increasing 
demand and coverage requirements  adjacent A-band cellular operations are causing 
interference.  The City of Portland is also experiencing interference in the vicinity of CMRS base 
stations, including the cellular A band carrier and Nextel  both alone and in combination.  
Similarly, police, fire and emergency medical services personnel in Anne Arundel County, 
Maryland have reported interference to mobile communications in the vicinity of co-located 
cellular (here Cingular and Verizon) and/or Nextel base stations.  As the County considers 
technical specifications for a replacement radio system, it is asking all in-band carriers to 
participate in a channel coordination effort for controlling interference to its public safety radio 
system.   The County is also asking Nextel to work with it on a possible channel swap to 
alleviate the continuing interference.  Such a swap could be a localized version of the 
realignment proposal set forth herein.   
C. Efforts to Address CMRS - Public Safety Interference in the 800 MHz Band
 The Commission began receiving inquiries and complaints about CMRS  public safety 
interference in 1999.  In April 2000, it brought together affected parties in response to increased 
reports of interference to 800 MHz public safety radio networks apparently resulting from the 
operations of nearby commercial systems, even though all providers were operating within the 
parameters of their FCC licenses.  A number of participants formed a working group to identify 
the causes of the interference, identify mitigation alternatives, and develop joint planning and 
technical solutions for preventing interference.   
 On January 4, 2001, the group presented to the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau 
(the Wireless Bureau) a Best Practices Guide that provides a broad overview of practices 
that can be used to identify and alleviate interference between public safety systems and 
commercial systems.   The Best Practices Guide offers strategies that can mitigate interference 
through frequency planning, strategic location of public safety and commercial base stations, 
system design improvements for commercial and/or public safety networks, equipment upgrades, 
frequency swaps, and, if necessary, FCC rule changes or waivers.  Subsequently, the Association 
of Public Safety Communications Officials, International (APCO) established an initiative 
called Project 39 to further the goals of the Best Practices Guide.  APCO Project 39 membership 
includes persons representing the public safety community, manufacturers and commercial 
operators as well as the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties, and the 
associations representing police and fire chiefs.  The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau 
named the Deputy Chief for Public Safety of the Bureaus Public Safety and Private Wireless 
Division as the FCCs liaison to Project 39.  
 Notwithstanding these efforts, reports of CMRS  public safety interference continue.  
Disruptive interference has been reported recently in the vicinity of four CMRS sites in the Las 
Vegas area, at additional sites in south Florida, and at sites in the Greater Los Angeles area.  
These reports illustrate the continuing nature of this problem and indicate that additional 
instances of CMRS  public safety interference will occur unless the FCC takes effective 
remedial action to address and correct the underlying causes of this problem.
V.	THE CAUSES OF CMRS  PUBLIC SAFETY INTERFERENCE AND THE 
PUBLIC SAFETY COMMUNITY'S NEED FOR ADDITIONAL SPECTRUM
	One of Congresss overriding objectives in establishing the FCC was  to make available, 
so far as possible, to all the people of the United States, .  .  . a rapid, efficient, nationwide and 
world-wide wire and radio communication services .  .  . for the purpose of promoting safety of 
life and property through the use of wire and radio communication.   Consistent with this vital 
objective, the FCC is responsible for devising an effective, long-term solution to the problem of 
CMRS  public safety interference in the 800 MHz band, and for acting on requests to allocate 
additional spectrum for public safety communications.  Specifically, the Commission should: (1) 
recognize that the current spectrum allocation and spectrum licensing structure of the 800 MHz 
band is the fundamental cause of CMRS  public safety interference in this band; (2) correct this 
problem by, among other things, realigning the 36 MHz of land mobile radio spectrum at 
806/824  851/869 MHz so that public safety, private radio, and CMRS are no longer 
commingled; and (3) allocate an additional 10 MHz of near-term available spectrum at 800 MHz 
for public safety communications.  
A.	The Mixed Licensing of Public Safety, Private and Commercial Systems 
Throughout the 800 MHz Band is the Fundamental Cause of CMRS  Public 
Safety Interference
The potential for CMRS  public safety interference in a specific area is, of course, 
influenced by the particular facts and circumstances of each local situation.   As noted above, 
there are two basic underlying causes of this interference: (1) the interleaved and mixed 
allocation of public safety, private radio, and CMRS systems at 800 MHz, and (2) the different 
architectures these systems have come to use.  Realigning the 800 MHz band would directly 
address these two factors and make it possible to rectify CMRS - public safety interference in the 
800 MHz band.  
Interleaved and Mixed Spectrum Allocations and Licensing.  One of the two fundamental 
causes of CMRS  public safety interference is the shared, mixed and interleaved allocation and 
licensing of commercial, private and public safety systems throughout the 800 MHz band.  
Because public safety channels are interleaved among and adjacent to CMRS and B/ILT 
channels, and because public safety licensees can be found throughout the 806/824  851/869 
MHz band, public safety radios must be able to transmit and receive on any of these channels so 
that they can be used on any public safety system.   The Land Mobile Radio spectrum allocation 
is so intermixed that it is technically impractical to build receivers that respond only to those 
channels licensed to a particular system.  Thus, the allocation of spectrum for public safety uses 
at different places in the band and the actual licensing of public safety communications systems 
throughout the 800 MHz band make it impossible to design receivers that will hear only public 
safety transmissions and filter out other systems signals within the band.   
Moreover, equipment designers must also take into account the thermal drift of 
bandpass or preselector filters in response to ambient temperature changes.  As the temperature 
varies, the range of frequencies that pass through the receivers front end shifts up and down; the 
filters must therefore pass an even wider range of channels to ensure that the receiver hears the 
desired channels.  Most public safety receivers hear and respond to RF energy in the adjacent 
824/849  869/894 MHz cellular band with minimal signal strength attenuation, as well as in the 
806/824  851/869 MHz land mobile channels.  The broad frequency response of public safety 
receiver equipment permits multiple RF emissions from SMR transmitters, cellular transmitters, 
or mixtures of both to combine in a public safety receiver and produce interference. 
	Diverging System Architectures.  The Commissions approach of allocating and licensing 
different services on adjacent, interleaved, and mixed spectrum in the 800 MHz band worked so 
long as all licensees built systems using the same basic noise-limited design architecture: 
analog, high-site, high power configurations without frequency reuse.   Over the past decade, 
however, commercial land mobile systems have transitioned to interference-limited system 
designs featuring multiple, low-power base stations with intensive frequency reuse and mobile 
hand-off from cell-to-cell throughout a geographic area to serve many times more users with the 
same quantity of spectrum.   At the same time, cellular operators licensed above 869 MHz 
adjacent to the NPSPAC channels have expanded the capacity and coverage of their 
interference-limited systems.  By introducing digital modulation technologies and numerous 
low sites, these cellular operators more intensively reuse their spectrum to meet the substantial 
growth in demand for commercial wireless services.
These differing system architectures can result in locally robust CMRS signals being 
much stronger than distant, less robust, public safety transmissions,  particularly within a few 
hundred meters of the CMRS base station where the commercial signal is strongest.   This 
disparity in signal strength leads to three types of interference: 
(1) Intermodulation.  Intermodulation (IM) is the primary interference 
mechanism involved in CMRS  public safety interference.  It occurs when 
locally stronger CMRS signals, on non-public safety frequencies, combine in the 
public safety receiver itself to form a new frequency or frequencies, much like 
combining red and yellow paint produces a new color -- orange.   
(2) Wideband noise interference.  The large signal strength disparity between 
typical high-site public safety and low-site commercial systems means that wideband 
noise produced by the commercial systems, while fully within FCC limits, may still be 
strong enough to cause interference to the relatively weak signals produced by the public 
safety radio system, particularly if those signals are close to the thermal noise limit of the 
public safety receivers. 

(3) Receiver Overload Interference.  If a commercial SMR or cellular operator 
has a large number of transmitters at a given site (to serve user demand), a public safety 
radio designed to receive very weak signals may be overloaded by the cumulative energy 
coming from the nearby site.  
    
It warrants reemphasizing that the incidents of CMRS  public safety interference in the 
800 MHz band reported to date have not resulted from the failure of any party to comply with 
Commission rules or the parameters set forth in its license.  Rather, such interference results 
from the normal operation of systems designed and optimized to meet the different needs of 
public safety and commercial communications systems licensed on adjacent, interleaved and 
shared channels.  Noise-limited public safety system designs have been a satisfactory model 
for public safety deployments given that public safety operators, spending public funds, must 
cover large geographic areas as economically as possible.  CMRS providers, in contrast, have 
acted rationally in response to marketplace demand by making substantial investments in digital, 
frequency reuse technologies to meet the dramatically increasing consumer demand for their 
wireless communications services. 
B. 800 MHz Realignment Will Create the Spectrum Allocations Necessary to 
Mitigate CMRS  Public Safety Interference
	The ability of law enforcement, fire departments, and other public safety agencies to 
communicate effectively and without harmful interference is critical to the safety of life and 
property and our nations security.  The public safety community and the CMRS industry have 
worked to address these problems through the Best Practices Guide and Project 39, and these 
parties should be commended for undertaking these initiatives.  These efforts, while a positive 
step, are nonetheless ad hoc and time consuming and impose significant burdens on all parties.    
 Incident-by-incident, after-the-fact interference remediation will inevitably fail to protect 
fully the safety of law enforcement personnel, firefighters and other emergency responders, and 
fail to keep pace with the evolving communications needs of both public safety and commercial 
communications providers.  CMRS  public safety interference is likely to worsen in the coming 
years unless a long-term solution is adopted.  CMRS carriers continue to expand their systems to 
serve additional users on existing spectrum and to meet the growing demand for competitive 
commercial wireless communications, including high speed data and other advanced services.  
Public safety communicators, despite limited funding and network infrastructure, must provide 
expanded communications coverage  particularly in-building coverage  as well as data and 
other enhanced capabilities to support life safety services in growing cities and suburbs.   These 
realities will increasingly juxtapose locally robust CMRS deployments with public safety 
communications systems operating with relatively weak signals  a recipe for increased CMRS - 
public safety communications interference under the current 800 MHz band plan.  
	Given these risk factors, the Commission must use its regulatory authority to implement a 
long-term solution that corrects the underlying cause of 800 MHz CMRS  public safety 
interference by realigning the 36 MHz of Land Mobile Radio spectrum in the 806/824  851/869 
MHz band to separate public safety channels and commercial channels into exclusive, 
contiguous blocks.  As discussed further in section VI.B., below, the Commission and the public 
safety community must consider additional measures to safeguard against CMRS - public safety 
interference, including a possible guard band and the reduction of public safety receiver 
sensitivity outside the public safety channel block.
 These actions would eliminate the underlying bases for CMRS  public safety 
interference and provide a near-universal solution.  Unless the Commission mandates 800 MHz 
realignment and the associated interference-prevention measures discussed below, public safety 
operators will face the ongoing challenge of case-by-case interference identification and analysis, 
as well as trial and error corrections every time a nearby commercial carrier modifies its 
inherently dynamic network.  Even with close cooperation among all parties, the ongoing burden 
of this process and continued threat of impaired public safety communications, not to mention 
the spectral constraints it imposes on commercial carriers, warrants the cost and effort necessary 
to implement the ubiquitous, permanent solution described herein.  
 The same considerations that call for a realignment of the 800 MHz Land Mobile Radio 
band shaped the band plan the FCC adopted for future public safety and CMRS systems that will 
operate in the 700 MHz band spectrum reallocated from broadcast television service on UHF 
Channels 60-69.  The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 directed the Commission to reallocate 24 
MHz of this spectrum for public safety use and 36 MHz of this spectrum for commercial use.   
Instead of interleaving commercial and public safety channels in this spectrum, the Commission 
has designated contiguous spectrum blocks (channels 60-62 and 65-67) for exclusive commercial 
use, and separate contiguous spectrum blocks (channels 63-64 and 68-69) for exclusive public 
safety use.  In addition, the Commission established guard bands in the commercial spectrum 
immediately adjacent to the public safety bands and prohibited commercial licensees in these 
bands from employing cellular architectures.    The FCC adopted these measures in response to 
concerns that commercial, interference-limited systems could not co-exist adjacent to noise-
limited public safety systems without interference.   These same concerns warrant 800 MHz 
Land Mobile Radio band realignment.
C. The Public Safety Community Needs Additional Spectrum for Communications 
Services
 As part of realigning the 36 MHz of Land Mobile Radio spectrum in the 806/824  
851/869 MHz band, the Commission should allocate additional spectrum for public safety 
services by creating a 20 MHz contiguous, primary public safety channel block in the 806/816  
851/861 MHz band.  This proposal would more than double, from 9.5 MHz to 20 MHz, the 
public safety spectrum at 800 MHz.  
 There is a pressing need to allocate additional spectrum for public safety 
communications.  In 1996, the Public Safety Wireless Advisory Committee (PSWAC) issued a 
report that, among other things, recommended that the FCC allocate 97.5 MHz of additional 
spectrum for public safety services to meet the current and foreseeable requirements for wireless 
communications through the year 2010.   The Commission took an important step towards 
meeting these requirements in 1997 when, as described above, it reallocated 24 MHz of spectrum 
from television channels 60  69 for public safety use in the 700 MHz band and subsequently 
established a band plan and service rules for that spectrum allocation.   Due, however, to current 
television broadcaster incumbency, public safety communications providers in most parts of the 
nation cannot yet access this spectrum, and may continue to be foreclosed from deploying 
service there for many more years.   This uncertainty has, in turn, hindered the development of 
700 MHz public safety communications equipment.  Thus, while 700 MHz may offer a partial 
long-term solution to the spectrum needs of public safety communications, it does not provide 
short-term or even medium-term relief.
 As noted above, on September 14, 2001, PSWN filed a petition for rulemaking reiterating 
the urgent need to allocate an additional 71 MHz of spectrum to meet public safety needs, and 
described the delays encountered in deploying public safety services in the 700 MHz band.   
PSWN states that, the greatest spectrum need of public safety wireless communications is for 
bandwidth to support low-speed data, high-speed data, and video.  These capabilities, 
incorporating the latest technologies, would allow local law enforcement, fire, and emergency 
management service personnel to employ the quickest and most informed approach in 
performing their duties."   The petition also reassert[ed] the urgent need for additional 
interoperability spectrum to be allocated for use by public safety agencies in all bands.   
According to PSWN, such an allocation is important primarily because of the emergence of 
new, innovative, life-saving technologies that will likely require greater bandwidth to function 
optimally. 
The compelling necessity of 800 MHz realignment to combat CMRS  public safety 
interference provides the FCC with a unique opportunity to allocate additional spectrum for 
public safety communications systems in a band where equipment is already available.  
Consequently, the Commission should reallocate 10.5 MHz of 800 MHz SMR spectrum for 
public safety use to be consolidated and realigned on a contiguous basis with the existing 9.5 
MHz of public safety spectrum at 800 MHz.  Equipment is readily available for public safety use 
on 800 MHz spectrum,  and relocating SMR (and many B/ILT) incumbents from this spectrum 
can be achieved in a relatively short timeframe  as short as two to three years and certainly 
before relocation of incumbent broadcasters out of the 700 MHz public safety channels can be 
completed.   This reallocation will help meet the public safety communitys urgent need for 
additional spectrum to accommodate data applications as well as critical interoperability needs.  
It will also provide public safety communications a larger contiguous block of spectrum in the 
800 MHz band that is directly adjacent to the 700 MHz spectrum that has been reallocated for 
exclusive public safety use.  This additional spectrum will provide the basic spectral resource for 
the development of advanced communications capabilities to support both Homeland Security 
and everyday public safety services in the post-September 11 environment.  
VI.	PROMOTING PUBLIC SAFETY BY REALIGNING THE 800 MHZ BAND AND 
ALLOCATING ADDITIONAL SPECTRUM TO PUBLIC SAFETY 
COMMUNICATIONS 
A.	The Realignment Plan 
This White Paper has described two vital steps to promote public safety communications:  
mitigating current and future CMRS  public safety interference, and providing public safety 
licensees with additional, useable spectrum as quickly as possible.  To accomplish these steps, 
the Commission should implement the following spectrum reallocations and redesignations, and 
the subsequent mandatory relocation and voluntary relocation of various incumbent licensees:  
(1) Reallocate the 800 MHz General Category and interleaved SMR, B/ILT and public 
safety channels, 800 MHz channels 1  400 (806/816  851/861 MHz), to create a 20 
MHz contiguous, primary Public Safety spectrum block.

(2) Reallocate the 6 MHz of public safety NPSPAC channels (821/824  866/869) and 
the adjacent 10 MHz of upper 200 SMR channels (816/821  861/866) for advanced 
technology commercial wireless systems using interference-limited multiple low-
site, low-power systems architecture.  The Commission should license the additional 
6 MHz to Nextel in partial exchange for the spectrum it will vacate and swap to help 
implement 800 MHz realignment; Nextel is already the dominant incumbent licensee 
on the adjacent 10 MHz.

(3) Reallocate 10 MHz of contiguous spectrum (2020/2025  2170/2175) from MSS for 
exclusive terrestrial advanced commercial mobile communications services.  This 
block is currently not being used by any MSS licensee, but includes non-MSS 
Broadcast Auxiliary Service incumbents that must be relocated to enable advanced 
mobile communications services to use this band, as detailed in section VIII.B. 
below.  The Commission should license this 10 MHz to Nextel as part of this 
proceeding in an even exchange for certain of its licenses totaling 10 MHz of 
spectrum in the 700, 800 and 900 MHz bands to make the 800 MHz band 
realignment possible.

(4) Redesignate 4 MHz of the 5 MHz of SMR spectrum at 900 MHz (896/901  934-
940), currently licensed to Nextel, for traditional (noise-limited) co-primary B/ILT 
and high-site SMR use.  

(5) Redesignate the 50 Business and 50 I/LT channels between 809.75/816  854.75/861 
MHz from primary B/ILT to primary public safety use as part of the channels 1  400 
public safety block.  Incumbent B/ILT licensees would be permitted to remain on 
these channels on a secondary, non-interference basis or voluntarily relocate as 
described below. 

(6) Redesignate the 4 MHz of 700 MHz Guard Band spectrum (762/764  792/794 MHz) 
from Guard Band Manager to co-primary B/ILT and high-site, analog SMR use, and 
modify the current service rules that apply to this spectrum to achieve this objective. 

(7) Expedite the current schedule for mandatory retuning of all Broadcast Auxiliary 
Service incumbents at 2020 - 2025 MHz, and, to the extent necessary, terrestrial 
Fixed Point-to-Point Microwave systems at 2170  2175.

(8) Require mandatory retuning of all advanced technology (interference-limited) CMRS 
SMR systems from the new 800 MHz Public Safety Block (800 MHz channels 1 
through 400) to the 16 MHz advanced technology block at 800 MHz.

(9) Require mandatory retuning of all public safety licensees in the NPSPAC channels, 
821/824  866/869 MHz, to the new 806 MHz Public Safety channels through the 
assistance of a Special Public Safety Frequency Coordinator, as detailed below.  This 
mandatory retuning of public safety systems would be funded in large part by Nextel, 
any other advanced technology SMR licensee, and the cellular licensees.

(10) Permit voluntary retuning of B/ILT incumbents and noise-limited SMR incumbents to 
the new 900 MHz B/ILT and traditional SMR spectrum, or to the 700 MHz former 
guard band channels, with the assistance of Frequency Coordinators on a first-come, 
first-served basis.   

At the end of the relocation period, all users would be grouped together in discrete parts 
of the band depending on their technology choices.   No private radio or commercial licensee 
would experience a net gain or loss of spectrum, and all licensees would have the opportunity to 
gain increased spectrum efficiency because of the new contiguous and near-contiguous spectrum 
grants.  To facilitate this realignment plan, the Commission should waive applicable FCC fees 
associated with the relocation and other license modification applications that would need to be 
filed by incumbent licensees under this plan. 
This 800 MHz realignment plan offers the most expeditious and efficient path to 
eliminating CMRS  public safety interference.  Nextel has evaluated other realignment 
alternatives, including separating public safety, B/ILT and commercial/advanced SMR licensees 
into separate blocks within the 800 MHz band; requiring the immediate refitting or replacement 
of all public safety receivers to achieve higher IM rejection specifications; moving all 800 public 
safety systems to 700 MHz or to 900 MHz; requiring CMRS and public safety licensees to 
mitigate interference on a case-by-case basis much as they have been doing to date; and 
requiring extensive and careful frequency coordination between CMRS providers and public 
safety communications systems.  None of these alternatives effectively achieves the essential 
public interest objective of correcting the fundamental cause of CMRS  public safety 
interference at 800 MHz while making a significant amount of near-term spectrum available for 
enhanced and expanded public safety communications networks.   
B.	Additional Measures To Prevent CMRS  Public Safety Interference
The realignment of the 800 MHz Land Mobile Service spectrum band is an essential step 
toward eliminating harmful CMRS  public safety interference in this band.  Realignment alone, 
however, will not completely eliminate this interference because public safety radios may still 
respond to RF energy from the adjacent digital SMR and cellular bands.  This section discusses a 
number of potential solutions to this problem.  The Commission could by rule adopt any of these 
specific alternatives or instead authorize public safety frequency coordinators to implement them 
in whole or in combination as warranted on a regional, metropolitan area, or other geographic 
basis.
Improved Receivers.  One means of reducing CMRS - public safety interference is to 
improve public safety receivers.  Realigning the 800 MHz band to eliminate interleaved mixed 
spectrum should enable equipment manufacturers to design narrower band-pass preselector 
filters and/or receiver signal attenuation characteristics that would in most cases prevent 
commercial transmissions from forming intermodulation products in public safety receivers.  
Narrower filters could limit receiver sensitivity to the new public safety channel block; if the 
receiver did not respond (or had a much smaller response) to signals outside the public-safety 
band, it would not be susceptible to intermodulation interference.  Alternatively, if such filters 
were too costly, required too much space in the receiver or imposed undesirable performance 
tradeoffs, manufacturers could couple a somewhat less restrictive preselecter with a fixed or 
variable attenuator to combat intermodulation.  Digital SMR, cellular and PCS receivers already 
use this type of automatic attenuation capability to control potential intermodulation interference.  
Based on analysis of CMRS  public safety interference in several cities as well as 
current receiver performance specifications and characteristics, it is recommended that the 
Commission adopt the following performance standards for 800 MHz public safety and CMRS 
systems to prevent harmful interference between these systems: 
? Public-safety mobile or portable receivers should be able to receive the desired 
public safety signal in the presence of commercial signals having a composite 
average power of 10 dBm, a peak-to-average ratio of 15 dB, and a noise output 
that conforms to the FCC requirements for transmitters in the band.

? In accordance with the licensee relocation schedule discussed in section VI.F. 
below, all public-safety receivers should meet or exceed the following 
performance standards by the end of the mandatory relocation period specified for 
a given EA: 

Item
Requirement
Intermodulation rejection
75 dB or better
Front-end filtering
The receiver should incorporate filters ahead of 
the first active stage such that commercial 
signals outside the public-safety range are 
attenuated no less than 20 dB more than any 
attenuation provided to signals in the public-
safety range.  This filtering should take place 
under all operating conditions.
Adjacent-channel rejection
75 dB or better
Reference sensitivity
< -112 dBm

Additional CMRS Base Station Filtering.  In addition to receiver standards, the 
Commission should require additional filtering of CMRS base station transmitters to further 
reduce wideband noise from CMRS transmitters falling in the public-safety band.  Specifically, 
all commercial transmitters in the 851- 894 MHz band could be required to attenuate energy in 
the public-safety band no less than 85 dB below the desired carrier level.  
Guard Band/Advanced Technology Band.  In order to allow public-safety receiver 
preselectors and CMRS base station transmitters to filter out signals not in the appropriate band, 
some spectrum isolation between CMRS and public-safety systems is necessary.  One way to 
achieve this is for public safety coordinators to implement a guard band on the upper end of the 
base-to-mobile frequency in the 20 MHz public safety block.   Requiring a guard band would be 
consistent with the band plan adopted by the Commission in allocating spectrum for CMRS and 
public safety use at 700 MHz.  A 2 MHz minimum guard band likely would be required to allow 
filters in public-safety receivers and CMRS base-station transmitters to function effectively.  The 
Commission should evaluate further whether 2 MHz is sufficient or whether a larger guard band 
may be required.  The Commission should also consider whether this guard band is best treated 
as dead spectrum or whether public-safety entities should have the flexibility to operate 
systems in it with the understanding that they must accept any interference they receive from 
CMRS systems in the adjacent band.
A more spectrally-efficient approach to isolating CMRS and public safety systems may 
be to establish a high technology public safety spectrum set-aside adjacent to the proposed digital 
SMR spectrum block.  Equipment in this portion of the proposed new public safety block could 
be required to (a) limit on-street infrastructure signal levels to prevent interference to traditional 
public-safety designs in the lower part of the public-safety band, and (b) be designed to 
withstand the relatively strong signals from digital SMR systems in the adjacent spectrum block.  
For example, a robustly designed, high-site digital public safety system could be a good 
neighbor to both traditional high-site public safety systems and adjacent commercial mobile 
radio services.  Thus, the Commission could achieve the benefits of a guard band without 
wasting or underutilizing scarce spectrum by establishing a digital technology, high-site channel 
reserve that could be used by public safety operators for data services, telemetry and perhaps 
interoperable voice services across political jurisdictions.  The Commission should also consider 
requiring any technology used on these channels to be open and non-proprietary and based on, or 
compatible with, a commercially available wireless technology.    This approach would serve the 
public interest by spurring development of competitive advanced public safety equipment and 
infrastructure incorporating interference-resistant protocols.
Stronger Public Safety Signal Strength.  Another alternative CMRS  public safety 
interference safeguard would be to require public safety systems to achieve a more robust signal 
in the field.  As discussed in section V.A. above, typical public safety system design has 
emphasized using the least infrastructure possible to control costs while providing usable 
coverage.  This design approach assumes that public safety systems can operate effectively at 
lower signal levels than are used by commercial wireless networks.  It is the disparity in signal 
strength between public safety and CMRS systems, however, that sets the stage for interference 
to the less robust public safety transmissions.  
One approach to eliminating interference in a realigned 800 MHz band would be to 
require stronger public safety base-to-mobile signals, i.e., a more robust signal on the street.  
By reducing the disparity between CMRS and public safety radio signals, a more robust public 
safety signal would be more resistant to interference from locally stronger CMRS system base 
station transmissions.  For example, while maintaining a 40 dBu requirement for co-channel 
protection, the Commission could require new public safety system deployments, and expansion 
or upgrades of existing systems, to provide a signal strength of no less than 53 dBu in all areas 
requiring interference protection from nearby CMRS systems.  This approach to preventing 
interference would generally require public safety systems to add additional infrastructure to 
their networks to provide more consistent and robust signals.  
Selecting a Solution.  The alternatives described above, individually or in combination, 
could provide sufficient protection against CMRS  public safety interference under the 800 
MHz realigned band plan.  The wideband sensitivity of public safety receivers, their resistance to 
intermodulation, the signal strength of public safety systems, and the types of system designs and 
interference resistant technologies used adjacent to the public safety block are all interrelated 
factors that affect how large a guard band is necessary in the public safety block to prevent 
interference.  As part of a rulemaking proceeding to implement the proposed 800 MHz 
realignment plan, the Commission should consider (a) the numerical standards for the protection 
that must be provided to public-safety operations, (b) how compliance is to be measured, and (c) 
whether to allow the public safety community, through its designated frequency coordinators or 
some other representative body, to determine what solutions to pursue.
Reduced CMRS Power Levels.  One option the Commission should not pursue is to 
require CMRS operators to reduce their on-street power levels through lowering transmitter 
power or changing antenna characteristics.  In a good-faith effort to combat interference, and as 
described in the Best Practices Guide, CMRS operators have voluntarily reduced on-street signal 
strength in some instances.  While this helps to control interference in certain circumstances, it 
requires these CMRS systems to accept degradation of their networks and their ability to serve 
customers.  The public interest would be disserved by requiring CMRS operators to implement 
this stopgap measure on a permanent basis throughout their networks, as to do so would 
inevitably create coverage holes, dropped calls, and disrupted service for many existing CMRS 
users. 
In theory, CMRS operators could compensate for reduced on-street signal levels by 
changing or building out additional CMRS infrastructure to restore the loss in coverage and 
service.  This would, however, impose substantial costs on carriers and their customers, thereby 
reducing customer access to commercial mobile radio services, particularly for less affluent 
citizens.  It would also be very difficult to obtain the necessary local zoning and permitting 
approvals for installing larger CMRS antennas and towers, or for the numerous additional base 
station sites necessary to restore the lost service.  Moreover, this approach would do nothing to 
correct -- and in fact would perpetuate -- the underlying spectral problem of incompatible radio 
system designs and uses on adjacent, interleaved and mixed 800 MHz spectrum.  For these 
reasons, the Commission should reject any suggestion that CMRS operators employ lower power 
levels as a long-term measure to prevent CMRS  public safety interference in the 800 MHz 
band.     
C.	Using Mandatory Retuning and Special Frequency Coordinators to Implement 
the 800 MHz Realignment  
Mandatory Retuning.  To achieve the public interest benefits of the 800 MHz realignment 
 i.e., eliminating CMRS  public safety interference and making additional public safety 
spectrum available expeditiously  the Commission should require incumbent licensees in the 
targeted frequency blocks, with the exception of B/ILT and traditional SMR licensees, to retune 
their systems to relocate in the proper spectrum block.  Relocation must be mandatory because 
any non-compliant licensee could create renewed interference potential for itself or for other 
affected licensees, or could block timely completion of the realignment reallocations.  
Special Frequency Coordinator.  To expedite and simplify retuning, the Commission 
should certify a special Public Safety Realignment Frequency Coordinator (the Public Safety 
Special Coordinator) whose responsibility would be to: (1) identify specific channel 
assignments for public safety licensees relocating from the NPSPAC channels to the new 800 
MHz public safety channel block (806/816  851-861 MHz); (2) verify that the new assignments 
will reduce or eliminate the potential for CMRS  public safety interference while ensuring that 
incumbent licensees receive new licenses that are geographically and spectrally equal to or better 
than their original licenses; and (3) assist incumbent NPSPAC licensees with carrying out their 
retuning obligations.  
The Public Safety Special Coordinator should be staffed by at least one representative 
from each of the existing FCC-certified public safety frequency coordinators,  as well as 
representation from the existing NPSPAC regional planning committees and the new 700 MHz 
planning organizations.  Using a unified updated licensing database and computerized frequency 
coordination programs, the Public Safety Special Coordinator would identify and publish new 
channel locations for all relocating public safety licensees.   The Special Coordinator would 
carry out this process using the regional planning areas as identified for the NPSPAC channels.    
Individual licensees could review their new assignments and work with the Special Coordinator 
to undertake any refinements, changes or modifications necessary to account for local 
propagation anomalies and special terrain factors.  The Special Coordinator would also act as a 
liaison and facilitator with current incumbents on the public safety block to handle the logistics 
of the retuning, relocations and spectrum swaps that will effectuate the relocation process.
Few if any incumbents on the lower 70 interleaved public safety channels would have to 
relocate because that spectrum would be within the new 20 MHz public safety block.  Relocation 
may be desirable or necessary in some instances, however, in light of local or regional 
requirements or other special circumstances.  The Commission should permit the Public Safety 
Special Coordinator to determine whether relocating lower 70-channel public safety incumbents 
is necessary to make efficient use of the new Public Safety block in a particular planning region 
and, if so, to identify new assignments within the new 20 MHz public safety spectrum block, and 
assist in completing such relocation.  
D. CMRS Licensees Should Fund the Bulk of Public Safetys Retuning Costs
The 800 MHz realignment plan cannot be implemented unless public safety entities have 
sufficient funds to cover their retuning costs, including applicable engineering, equipment and 
site costs, base station retuning costs, handset and mobile unit retuning costs, as well as any 
reasonable additional costs of relocation to fully comparable facilities.  In some cases, this may 
include the costs of new repeaters, antennae and handsets where retuning existing equipment is 
not practicable or replacement equipment is required to prevent interference.  Because public 
safety communications systems are generally funded by tax revenues, government bonds or other 
public sources, 800 MHz relocation costs could impose an unexpected and unplanned burden on 
state and local governments  many of which are already struggling to meet increasing costs for 
roads, schools, health care and other essential public services and facilities.  Thus, if public 
safety communications providers were required to provide funding for the entire cost of their 
portion of the 800 MHz realignment, it would be difficult to complete realignment in an 
acceptable time period.  The urgent need to eliminate CMRS  public safety interference and 
make additional spectrum available for public safety communications systems requires that 
additional relocation funding resources be made available.  
Therefore, the Commission should require commercial SMR providers, including Nextel 
and SouthernLinc?, and the 800 MHz cellular licensees to make a substantial contribution to the 
costs of retuning public safety communications systems.  These CMRS licensees stand to benefit 
significantly from realigning the 800 MHz band and concomitantly adopting technical and 
operational requirements that ultimately will virtually eliminate CMRS  public safety 
interference.  In particular, cellular carriers will be relieved of the burdens of detailed, ongoing 
coordination requirements, operational limitations and channel use restrictions necessary to 
safeguard public safety communications systems from interference.  Advanced SMR operators, 
like Nextel, will be able to consolidate spectrum holdings now mixed and interleaved with public 
safety and B/ILT systems into contiguous, exclusive channel blocks offering increased user 
capacity and freedom from the operational limits and ongoing coordination procedures otherwise 
necessary to mitigate and/or prevent CMRS  public safety interference.   Cellular and 
advanced SMR/CMRS operators will be free to focus on competing with each other for 
customers, rather than diverting corporate resources to complex multi-carrier coordination efforts 
to prevent intermodulation products from falling on public safety channels.  
Nextel will be the most substantially affected advanced CMRS licensee involved in this 
project.  Nextel is willing to contribute up to $500 million for relocating incumbent public safety 
communications systems to the new public safety channel block at 806/816  851/861.   While 
this may cover a substantial portion of the public safety retuning costs, other commercial SMR 
providers and cellular licensees, particularly the A band carriers, should help fund public 
safety retuning costs.   As described above, cellular licensees are a primary source of CMRS  
public safety interference in the 800 MHz band.  The realignment plan would relieve their 
burdens associated with responding to and mitigating the interference incidents that will become 
increasingly prevalent in the future.  
Consequently, all cellular and advanced 800 MHz mobile communications providers 
should make a substantial contribution toward the costs of retuning public safety 
communications systems from the NPSPAC channels and, where necessary, interleaved lower 70 
channels, to the new public safety block.    Public safety communications operators would 
contribute a lesser portion of the costs.  This approach will create a public-private partnership 
effort to eliminate CMRS  public safety interference and make additional spectrum available for 
public safety communications without damaging the competitiveness of affected CMRS 
providers.  
In identifying those costs eligible for reimbursement and establishing reimbursement 
procedures, the Commission should follow the approach it adopted in relocating incumbents 
from the upper 200 SMR channels at 800 MHz.  Costs incurred to retune public safety 
incumbents from their current channels assignments to their new assignments in the public safety 
channel block would be eligible for reimbursement.  The costs of expanding or improving 
existing systems, including upgraded equipment (unless retuning the existing equipment is 
impractical or impossible), or correcting coverage gaps or other system shortcomings would be 
ineligible for reimbursement.    
E. Using Voluntary Retuning and Special Frequency Coordinators for Realignment 
of B/ILT and Noise-Limited Traditional SMR Licensees 
Voluntary Relocation for B/ILT Licensees.  The Commission should permit incumbent 
B/ILT and high-site analog SMR licensees to continue operating on a secondary, non-
interference basis in the 800 MHz band, while providing incentives for these licensees to relocate 
voluntarily to the 700 MHz band or 900 MHz band.  This flexible approach would enable such 
licensees and public safety planners to take into account variances in public safety spectrum 
needs on a local and/or regional basis.  Public safety users may not need to inhabit this spectrum 
immediately throughout the nation; incumbents could remain in those locations (e.g., rural or less 
populated areas) until public safety users need the spectrum.  In addition, some B/ILT and high-
site SMRs may use system designs or technologies that can co-exist with primary public safety 
use on a secondary, non-interference basis.  Thus, the approach recommended herein would 
allow B/ILT and high-site SMR incumbents in the 806/816  851/861 block to evaluate local 
spectrum demand requirements and the realities of secondary status in that venue versus moving 
to new assignments at 700 MHz or 900 MHz.  Incumbents could choose to take advantage of 
guaranteed replacement assignments on a first-come, first-served basis, or take their chances 
on future relocation spectrum availability.   
B/ILT Special Frequency Coordinator.  The FCC should also create a separate B/ILT 
Realignment Frequency Coordinator (the B/ILT Special Coordinator) to identify specific 
channel assignments for voluntary relocations by B/ILT licensees and high-site traditional SMR 
systems in the reallocated 4 MHz of former SMR channels at 900 MHz and the 700 MHz former 
guard band.  Specifically, the B/ILT Special Coordinator would be responsible for: (1) 
identifying specific channel assignments for traditional noise-limited SMR and B/ILT licenses 
voluntarily relocating from the lower 800 MHz channels to the new 700 MHz or 900 MHz co-
primary B/ILT and high-site SMR channel block; (2) verifying that the new assignments will 
reduce or eliminate the potential for CMRS  public safety interference while ensuring that 
relocated licensees receive new licenses that are geographically and spectrally equal to or better 
than their original licenses; and (3) assisting incumbents that must be relocated with carrying out 
their retuning obligations.  Using a first-come, first-served licensing approach will encourage 
incumbent licensees to take advantage of this newly available spectrum and thereby facilitate 
voluntary relocation from the new public safety block, particularly in metropolitan areas where 
public safety licensees will have the most urgent need for this additional spectrum.
The B/ILT Special Coordinator should include representation from the B/ILT and SMR 
certified Frequency Coordinators: AMTA, the Industrial Telecommunications Association 
(ITA), the Personal Communications Industry Association (PCIA) and the Utilities 
Telecommunications Council (UTC).  The B/ILT Special Coordinator would perform 
essentially the same functions for its constituency as the Public Safety Special Coordinator 
performs for public safety: identifying new channel locations for the incumbents being relocated, 
working with those individual incumbents to account for local propagation anomalies and special 
terrain factors, or facilitating other refinements or modifications required to complete the 
relocations.  
Advanced Technology B/ILT Systems.  The Commission should consider requiring the 
B/ILT Special Coordinator to designate a portion of the new 900 MHz traditional SMR/B/ILT 
channel block for advanced technology B/ILT private systems.  Some B/ILT licensees have 
acquired and operate advanced, multiple-site, frequency reuse communications systems using the 
same network architecture as CMRS systems.   The FCC should examine whether the Special 
Coordinator should designate certain frequencies at 900 MHz for the development of such 
systems to prevent creating at 900 MHz the type of mixed and interleaved spectrum licensing 
that has created interference problems in the 800 MHz band. 
Channel Bandwidth at 900 MHz.  The Commission should examine whether to retain the 
current 12.5 kHz channel bandwidth at 900 MHz.  It could require all migrating B/ILT and 
analog SMRs to use 12.5 kHz equipment in the 900 MHz band, or it could permit the Special 
Coordinators to assign two adjacent channels to a licensee for every one 800 MHz channel to 
permit the licensee to continue to use 25 kHz equipment.  The Commission would need to 
address whether it should take a different approach in relocating analog SMR systems, analog 
noise-limited B/ILT systems, or digital, frequency-reuse B/ILT relocatees.  Incumbents being 
relocated should be encouraged to make the most efficient use of this spectrum, either by FCC 
requirements or by steps taken by the Special Coordinator.
Utility Company Licensees.  Utility companies licensed on the 800 MHz B/ILT channels 
would be accommodated by relocation to the former 900 MHz SMR channels or former 700 
MHz Guard band channels.  The 900 MHz channels are already interleaved with 5 MHz of 900 
MHz spectrum allocated for private, internal use B/ILT systems; accordingly, this reallocation 
would create a 10 MHz block for B/ILT licensees, including utilities, as well as the remaining 
analog, traditional SMR systems.  This reallocation of 900 MHz channels for co-primary B/ILT 
and traditional SMR services, coupled with the 4 MHz of 700 MHz guard band spectrum Nextel 
is making available, offers more spectrum than these licensees have available today at 800 MHz.  
This relocation would permit utility company licensees to expand their systems in the future, 
particularly those that provide communications for critical utility services.  Comments recently 
filed in response to a request by the National Telecommunications and Information 
Administration (NTIA) point out that energy and water companies, in particular, have special 
spectrum needs that closely parallel those of public safety entities.    In light of this, the 
Commission should consider whether to reserve certain channels in the new 900 MHz B/ILT and 
high-site SMR spectrum block for the internal communications needs of critical infrastructure 
utility companies, such as water, gas, or electric utilities. 
F. Implementation Timetable  
Given the risk that disruption of life safety communications creates for the well being of 
public safety personnel and the citizens they serve, the public interest requires that the 800 MHz 
realignment be completed as rapidly as practicable.   It will not be possible, however, to retune 
all of the land mobile community at once.  The following reallocation/retuning implementation 
plan balances these two considerations:  
? The following rule changes should be effective upon Commission adoption of a 
Report and Order implementing the 800 MHz realignment plan:  (1) reallocation of 
the 2020/2025  2170/2175 MHz MSS spectrum to terrestrial mobile 
communications, and, as part of the spectrum swap, assignment (licensing) of this 
spectrum to Nextel through a nationwide license; (2) redesignation of the 762/764  
792/794 MHz Guard band channels, and the 896/901  935/940 MHz SMR channels, 
to co-primary B/ILT and high-site SMR use; (3) establishment of the new 20 MHz 
Public Safety block at 806/816  851/861 MHz with a transition period to relocate all 
affected CMRS and public safety licensees, and with all incumbent B/ILT and high-
site SMR licensees in this spectrum converted to secondary status; and (4) 
establishment of the new advanced technology SMR block at 816/824  861/869 
MHz and assignment (licensing) of the 821/824  866/869 portion of it to Nextel.    

? With the assistance of the Public Safety Special Coordinator, incumbent public safety 
NPSPAC licensees (821/824  866/869 MHz) would begin moving to the new 
806/816  851/861 MHz public safety channel block as incumbents relocate in the 
priority order discussed below.  At the same time, analog SMRs and B/ILT licensees 
in channels 1- 400 would commence voluntary relocation to the 900 MHz or 700 
MHz bands, with the assistance of the B/ILT Special Coordinator, to clear channels 1 
- 400 for ongoing public safety relocations. 

? Once the NPSPAC channels are cleared, Nextel would complete relocating its 
remaining operations on channels 1  400 to the former NPSPAC channels or the 
upper 200 channels. 

The 800 MHz realignment and associated licensee relocations should be completed 
within 36 months of the effective date of a Report and Order adopting the realignment plan.  The 
following relocation schedule gives priority first to relocations necessary to mitigate acute 
unresolved interference, and second to retuning licensees in areas most likely to experience 
CMRS  public safety interference:   
? For markets with acute, unresolved CMRS  public safety interference, channel 
swaps and retuning should be completed within 12 months of the effective date of the 
Report and Order;  

? Channel swaps and retuning would be completed in all remaining top 30 Economic 
Areas (EAs) within 24 months; 

? Channel swaps and retuning should be completed in the top 80 EAs within 30 
months; 

? All remaining relocations and swaps completed within 36 months of Commission 
adoption of a Report and Order regarding the 800 MHz realignment plan.

If at any time CMRS  public safety interference in any market cannot be satisfactorily 
controlled using short-term corrective measures (e.g., lower power, higher antenna height, 
modified frequency use at the problem site), the public safety licensee should have the right to 
request that the Public Safety Special Coordinator advance the retuning of that entity and/or 
market.  The Commission should empower the Public Safety Special Coordinator to require that 
any such retuning project be completed within nine months or sooner, if practicable.   
VII.	LEGAL AUTHORITY
The Commissions authority to assign and reallocate spectrum and to relocate incumbent 
licensees derives from several provisions of the Act, including sections 4(i), 303(c), 303(f), 
303(r), and 316.   These same provisions also authorize the Commission to convert non-
relocating incumbents from primary to secondary status when necessary to advance the public 
interest.  As discussed below, the Commission has exercised both types of authority in the past, 
and would face no legal obstacles to exercising such authority under the proposed 800 MHz 
realignment plan.
A.  Authority to Mandate Incumbent Relocation
On numerous occasions, the Commission has exercised its authority to require incumbent 
licensees to relocate to different parts of the spectrum when necessary to advance the public 
interest.  For example, in 1965, the Commission reallocated Business Radio Service spectrum 
as a matter of sound spectrum planning.   In that case, the Commission required that private 
community antenna television systems (CATV) relocate, at their own expense, from the 
spectrum allocated for Business Radio users to an adjacent band.  Finding that CATV spectrum 
needs were growing,  the Commission sought to accommodate future CATV needs by 
reallocating spectrum and dedicating it to CATV use, with the quid pro quo that existing 
licensees relocate themselves to the newly-allocated part of the band.  
More recently, in the Emerging Technologies proceeding, the Commission reallocated 
220 MHz of spectrum in the 1.85 to 2.20 GHz band from private and common carrier fixed 
microwave use to use by emerging technologies.   While existing public safety fixed 
microwave licensees were initially allowed to remain in the band on a co-primary basis,  the 
Commission reconsidered that decision and, on its own motion, determined that all microwave 
incumbents, including public safety users, would be required to relocate.   This decision was 
upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.  The court stated that the 
Commissions finding that it is in the public interest to subject all incumbent . . . fixed 
microwave facilities, including public safety licensees, to mandatory relocation adequately 
articulated a reasoned analysis, based on the record, to require the relocation.   
The Commissions authority to relocate public safety and digital SMR incumbents in the 
800 MHz band is not diminished by the fact that portions of this spectrum were licensed through 
competitive bidding under Section 309(j) of the Act.   Indeed, as section 309(j) itself makes 
clear, Congress intended licenses assigned by auction to be regulated no differently from licenses 
assigned by other means:  
Nothing in this subsection, or in the use of competitive bidding, 
shall
(A) alter spectrum allocation criteria and procedures established by the 
other provisions of this Act; [or]
. . .
(C) diminish the authority of the Commission under the other 
provisions of this Act to regulate or reclaim spectrum licenses; [or]
(D) be construed to convey any rights, including any expectation of 
renewal of a license, that differ from the rights that apply to other 
licenses within the same service that were not issued pursuant to 
this subsection[.]   
Because the Commissions authority to regulate and reclaim spectrum extends to all licensees, 
including those that acquired licenses through competitive bidding, the Commission is fully 
empowered to require incumbents in the 800 MHz band to relocate as needed to further the 
public interest.
The Commission also has authority to convert hold-over incumbent licensees to 
secondary status.  Specifically, the Commission has previously granted incumbent licensees the 
option of either retaining their existing licensed channels on a secondary, non-interference basis 
or voluntarily relocating their operations on a preferential basis during an accommodation 
period.   The Commission thus possesses the legal authority to grant this same option to 
incumbent B/ILT and traditional high-site SMR licensees currently operating in the 800 MHz 
band. 
B.  The Ashbacker Doctrine and Section 309(j) Are Not Implicated by the 800 MHz 
Realignment Plan
The proposed 800 MHz realignment plan is fully consistent with administrative law due 
process requirements, including the Ashbacker doctrine,  as well as the competitive bidding 
provisions set forth in section 309(j) of the Act.   The plan would entail the reallocation of 
certain spectrum bands and modifications of existing licenses pursuant to section 316 of the 
Act.   Pursuant to the plan, incumbent licensees would effectively swap spectrum, trading 
their current channel assignments for alternative assignments to eliminate the underlying causes 
of CMRS - public safety interference and allocate additional spectrum to public safety 
communications.   Because these swaps of already-occupied frequencies would not require the 
Commission to issue any licenses to new licensees or for new services, and because the 
Commission may permissibly limit eligibility for spectrum licenses when doing so serves the 
public interest, the proposed plan would not trigger either the Ashbacker doctrine or section 
309(j).
Ashbacker Doctrine.  In Ashbacker, the Supreme Court held that, if two bona fide 
applications for an open frequency are mutually exclusive, they are entitled to a comparative 
hearing.  Ashbacker is only triggered when an open frequency is being assigned, and the U.S. 
Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has held that Ashbacker does not compel the Commission 
to hold comparative hearings in order to approve channel exchanges[.]   
In light of this holding, in previous situations where licensees have exchanged their 
current licenses for equivalent licenses using a different frequency, the Commission has 
concluded that section 316 of the Act authorizes such modifications.   The proposed 800 MHz 
realignment plan contemplates precisely this kind of license exchange.  Accordingly, with 
respect to all the spectrum that would be effectively swapped under the proposed plan, the 
Ashbacker doctrine would not impair the Commissions authority, pursuant to section 316 of the 
Act, to relocate incumbent licensees to different spectrum assignments to resolve the CMRS  
public safety interference issues described above. 
The Ashbacker doctrine likewise does not preclude the Commission from allocating 
additional spectrum to public safety services and, to make this possible, assigning 10 MHz of 
reallocated MSS spectrum to Nextel in exchange for spectrum Nextel would surrender as part of 
the realignment plan.  As a long line of precedents demonstrates, Ashbacker does not prevent the 
FCC from promulgat[ing] rules limiting eligibility to apply for a channel when such action 
promotes the public interest, convenience and necessity.   Thus, because of the important 
public interest goals it would advance, the Commission would be free to promulgate rules that 
would effectively make Nextel the only eligible licensee of the 2020/2025 and 2170/2175 MHz 
portion of the MSS band.  
As the commercial licensee most interleaved with and adjacent to public safety licensees, 
Nextel is directly affected by any realignment plan that creates the separate public safety and 
commercial spectrum blocks necessary to mitigate 800 MHz CMRS  public safety interference.  
Nextels cooperation in voluntarily relocating from the new public safety block, and voluntarily 
making spectrum available to relocate B/ILT and high-site SMR licensees from the public safety 
block, is an essential element of the realignment plan.  The Commission has full authority to 
earmark and assign to Nextel the replacement channels necessary to make Nextel whole in this 
spectrum swap and make implementing the 800 MHz realignment plan possible.  The 
realignment plan, in turn, will mitigate the problem of CMRS-Public Safety interference while 
making additional spectrum available for public safety communications.
Section 309(j).  Section 309(j) of the Act authorizes the Commission to award initial 
spectrum licenses through the use of a competitive bidding system.   Section 309(j) exempts 
from competitive bidding applications for public safety spectrum.   The assignment of spectrum 
licenses to public safety services under an 800 MHz band realignment plan and the allocation of 
additional spectrum to public safety consequently would thus not trigger the section 309(j) 
competitive bidding procedures.  
Section 309(j) would likewise not be implicated by the proposed reallocation and 
redesignation of the 800 MHz spectrum used by private radio and SMR licensees.  Instead of 
applying for initial license[s] under section 309(j)(1), these licensees would merely receive 
licenses for replacement spectrum in exchange for the spectrum licenses they will surrender as 
part of the realignment plan.  Accordingly, the reallocation proposal would not trigger the 
competitive bidding requirements of section 309(j).  
This analysis is consistent with other cases in which the Commission has relocated 
wireless licensees from one frequency block to another comparable block without triggering 
section 309(j)s competitive bidding requirements for initial licenses.  The Commission recently 
held, for instance, that section 309(j) was not a valid basis for granting a Petition for 
Reconsideration of an earlier order mandating the relocation of Digital Electronic Message 
Service (DEMS) licensees: 
Because its actions [to relocate DEMS licensees to new spectrum] 
were license modifications under authority of Section 316, and did 
not involve the grant of initial licenses, the Commission was not 
authorized under Section 309(j) of the Act to use auction 
procedures.  Those auction procedures may only be used to select 
from among mutually exclusive applications for initial licenses.  
Accordingly, petitioners reliance on Section 309(j) of the Act is 
misplaced. 

Like the relocated DEMS licensees, the incumbents affected by the proposed plan would 
be relocated under authority of section 316 of the Act, and not section 309(j).
VIII.	MOBILE SATELLITE SERVICE CONSIDERATIONS
A. Effect on Pending MSS Rulemakings  
To implement effectively the realignment of the 800 MHz Land Mobile Radio band and 
allocate additional spectrum to public safety, it will be necessary to reallocate the 2020/2025 and 
2170/2175 MHz bands to terrestrial mobile services, and to assign that spectrum to Nextel in 
exchange for spectrum relinquished by Nextel for reassignment to public safety communications 
services, B/ILT licensees and high-site SMR licensees.  The Commission has already proposed, 
in a separate pending rulemaking (Advanced Wireless Services Proceeding), to reallocate a 
portion of the MSS spectrum in the 1990-2025 MHz and 2165-2200 MHz bands to support the 
introduction of new advanced mobile and fixed terrestrial wireless services (advanced wireless 
services), including third generation (3G) and future generations of wireless systems.   In that 
proceeding, the Commission requested comments on various spectrum reallocation options that 
were intended to preserve sufficient spectrum for 2 GHz MSS operations and, at the same time, 
make available some of the 2 GHz MSS spectrum for advanced wireless services.
For the reasons discussed herein, the Commission should reallocate the 2020/2025 and 
2170-2175 MHz MSS frequency bands on a primary basis to terrestrial advanced mobile 
services.  It should assign these frequency bands to Nextel in return for Nextels swapping 
certain 700, 800 and 900 MHz spectrum for public safety purposes.  These actions will serve the 
public interest by resolving CMRS  public safety interference in the 800 MHz band, addressing 
critical spectrum needs of the public safety services, and affording Nextel replacement spectrum 
for its use in providing terrestrial mobile services.  
B. Relocation of Incumbent Broadcast Auxiliary Service and Fixed Service 
Licensees in the 2020/2025 and 2170/2175 MHz Bands
The MSS spectrum in the 2020/2025 MHz and 2170/2175 MHz bands that would be 
reallocated to terrestrial mobile services and assigned to Nextel as part of the 800 MHz 
realignment plan is currently used by Broadcast Auxiliary (BAS) and Fixed Service (FS) 
licensees, who also operate in other parts of the MSS band.  In the Commissions proceeding to 
allocate 2 GHz spectrum to MSS, it adopted a plan to relocate BAS and FS licensees operating 
on this spectrum to other spectrum bands.   The current BAS relocation plan consists of a 
complex, two-phase, market-staggered approach that would relocate gradually incumbent BAS 
licensees over many years as MSS systems became operational.  Incumbent FS licensees would 
be relocated to the extent they received harmful interference from MSS, but would not be 
required to relocate if they could successfully share spectrum with MSS.  Under the plan the 
Commission adopted, MSS licensees would compensate incumbent BAS and FS licensees for 
the costs incurred in relocating.
	As described above, the Commission has recently sought comment in its Advanced 
Wireless Services Proceeding on whether to reallocate some portions of the MSS band to 
advanced terrestrial wireless services.  In doing so, it recognized that the current phased 
relocation of BAS might not be practical if such a reallocation plan were adopted because 
advanced wireless services would be deployed faster than MSS operations.  It consequently 
sought comment on (1) how the current BAS and FS relocation plan would have to be modified 
to accommodate a reallocation of spectrum for terrestrial wireless use; (2) what the relocation 
responsibilities of new MSS and terrestrial wireless entrants would be; and (3) whether new MSS 
and terrestrial wireless entrants would share the relocation costs on a pro rata basis. 
	The Commission will need to address the same issues with respect to the 2020/2025 MHz 
and 2170/2175 MHz bands that would be reallocated and assigned to Nextel under an 800 MHz 
realignment plan.  In doing so, the Commission should ensure that the different users of the MSS 
band share BAS and FS relocation costs on an equitable basis.  It should also seek to expedite the 
current BAS and FS relocation process, at least with respect to the 2020/2025 MHz and 
2170/2175 MHz bands, in order to implement the 800 MHz realignment plan under the timetable 
described above.  Because of the urgent need to resolve CMRS  public safety interference in the 
800 MHz band and to allocate additional spectrum to public safety, the Commission should give 
priority to adopting a modified BAS and FS relocation plan for the 2020/2025 MHz and 
2170/2175 MHz bands so that these bands can be cleared in an expeditious manner.  Relocation 
issues involving other portions of the MSS band should be deferred to the extent practicable for 
consideration in the Commissions pending Advanced Wireless Services Proceeding.  

IX.	CONCLUSION
Given the critically important life-safety services supported by public safety 
communications systems, the Commission should implement remedial actions promptly.  
Commercial-public safety radio interference will increase unless the shared, mixed and 
interleaved licensing of the 800 MHz land mobile radio band is realigned and commercial 
licensees and public safety communications licensees are relocated to different, separate channel 
blocks.  
Public safety communicators also urgently need additional spectrum.  This White Paper 
sets forth a comprehensive plan to address these critical matters in an expeditious, effective 
manner.  The Commission should move rapidly to adopt a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in 
substantial accord with the 800 MHz realignment plan discussed herein, so that it can receive the 
comments, suggestions and ideas of all interested parties and, so informed, enact the rule 
changes needed to mitigate CMRS  public safety interference at 800 MHz while protecting the 
fundamental interests of all affected licensees, and at the same time double the near-term 
spectrum available at 800 MHz for public safety communications systems.   

						Respectfully submitted, 
NEXTEL COMMUNICATIONS, INC.	

						By,  _________________________
					      	       Robert S. Foosaner
Senior Vice President  Government 
Affairs and Chief Regulatory Officer

        
November 21, 2001 
  	In the Matter of the Development of Operational, Technical, and Spectrum Requirements 
for Meeting Federal, State, and Local Public Safety Agency Communications Requirements 
Through the Year 2010, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 11 FCC Rcd 12460,  1 (1996). 
  	Id.  See also In the Matter of the Development of Operational, Technical, and Spectrum 
Requirements for Meeting Federal, State, and Local Public Safety Agency Communications 
Requirements Through the Year 2010, First Report and Order and Third Notice of Proposed 
Rulemaking, 14 FCC Rcd 152,  24 (1998) (First Report and Order).
  	See Petition for Rule Making by the Public Safety Wireless Network (PSWN) to 
Promote Allocation of Spectrum for Public Safety Agencies and Other Matters to Address 
Communications Needs Through 2010, filed September 14, 2001 (the PSWN Petition).         
  	PSWN Petition at 4.
  	For instance, Senator James Jeffords of Vermont, Chairman of the Environment and 
Public Works Committee, recently introduced and then steered through his committee a bill      
(S. 1631) that would mandate a 90-day federal study of the resources that are needed for 
development of an effective nationwide communications system for emergency response 
personnel.  The need for new resources was recognized even before September 11.  On July 13, 
2001, for instance, twelve members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to the 
Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and 
Judiciary Appropriations requesting $2 million to aid in the development of a county-wide 
interoperable public safety communications network for Los Angeles County. 
  Federal Communications Commission Announces Creation of Homeland Security Policy 
Council, released November 14, 2001.  
  	In fact, as discussed infra, mature cellular systems use advanced dynamic frequency 
assignment algorithms that may not be able to account for CMRS  public safety interference.  
Even worse, cellular systems using advanced, digital broadband transmission technologies, such 
as CDMA, may not be able to eliminate specific channels that create interference.  
  	See Exhibit A for a series of charts depicting the evolution of the 800 MHz Land Mobile 
Radio spectrum band plan from 1974 to the present.  See also An Inquiry into the Future use of 
the Frequency Band 806-960 MHz, Second Report and Order, 46 FCC 2d 752 (1974) (1974 
Licensing Order).   
  	See id. at  12, 17.  In a trunked system, two or more channels are linked with a 
computer that automatically assigns the first available channel to a user.  In a conventional 
system, channel access is manually controlled and each user must search manually for a vacant 
channel.  Conventional systems were simpler and cheaper to operate, but trunking is a more 
efficient technology because it allows a greater number of mobiles to be accommodated on the 
same number of channels.
  	See id. at 767-78,   45-48.
  	For example, a five-channel trunked system would be assigned channels 401, 441, 481, 
521 and 561. This exacerbated the scrambling of different licensees on adjacent, near-adjacent 
and even the same channels (with specified co-channel separation) throughout the 806/821  
851/866 MHz portion of the 800 MHz band.
  	See 1974 Licensing Order at 772-73,  71-73. 
  	The area of interference can be as small as a few feet to as much as one-quarter of a mile 
from the commercial operators base station site.
  	Nextel Partners, Inc. ("Nextel Partners") is a partially-owned affiliate of Nextel, which 
provides 800 MHz iDEN digital services in 100 secondary and tertiary markets throughout the 
United States.  Nextel Partners utilizes the same mix of 800 MHz spectrum and faces the same 
potential interference issues that Nextel does in the 800 MHz band.
  	See Letter, dated October 30, 2001, from Spurgeon R. Eismeier, Sr., Central Services 
Officer, Anne Arundel County, to Lawrence R. Krevor, Nextel Communications, Inc.  
  	The group included Motorola, Inc., the Association of Public Safety Communications 
Officials International (APCO), PSWN, CTIA, and Nextel.
  	See FCC Press Release, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Announces Best Practices 
Guide for Avoiding Interference Between Public Safety and Commercial Wireless 800 MHz 
Communications Systems  (issued February 9, 2001).
  	See Letter from Dwana R. Terry, Chief, Public Safety and Private Wireless Division, to 
Mr. Joe Kurran, Washington County Consolidated Communications Agency, dated September 
13, 2001. 
  	47 U.S.C.  151.    
  	In general, the magnitude of the disparity between public safety and commercial signal 
levels, the number of channels being used by each operator, the height and power of the affected 
stations, the degree of antenna downtilt and local topographic and propagation characteristics can 
all affect whether interference occurs.  Moreover, some models of public safety receivers exhibit 
sub-optimal intermodulation, adjacent channel and spurious-response rejection capabilities, 
thereby increasing the potential for CMRS - public safety interference. 
  	It would be significantly more expensive to build different receivers for the interleaved 
70 public safety channels only, or for the NPSPAC channels only, thereby increasing 
infrastructure costs for publicly funded systems.  It would also prevent a single system from 
using both lower 70 and NPSPAC channels, unless the user carried two separate handsets.  
  	Public safety handsets are able to receive and transmit on General Category channels, the 
lower 80 interleaved SMR channels, and the upper 200 SMR channels as well as the 70 
interleaved public safety channels and NPSPAC channels, because public safety systems were 
licensed in the past on all of these channels.
  	As discussed above, Public Safety communications systems have traditionally been 
designed to enable communications at low signal levels (as low as 105 dBm or less) until the 
desired signal cannot be distinguished from the background thermal noise in the receiver.  This 
design enables public safety agencies to provide coverage throughout their jurisdictions  often 
large geographic areas -- with one or at most a few base stations (using simulcast rather than 
frequency reuse design) -- and therefore minimal expenditure of public funds.  
  	Interference-limited systems use multiple, low power base stations and sophisticated 
frequency coordination to control intrasystem interference while maximizing user capacity.
  	Signal levels immediately around low-height CMRS sites are typically much stronger 
(e.g.,  -25 to -40 dBm) than those from more distant high-height public safety transmitters (e.g.,  
-70 to -100 dBm or less).  
  	In the earlier days of cellular development, this happened infrequently because cellular 
antennas were located at high enough elevations that the distance to the ground sufficiently 
attenuated the signals so that they rarely overpowered adjacent public safety signals.  As 
cellular use has grown, cellular carriers are building smaller cells with lower sites to maximize 
frequency reuse; the lower antennas produce a stronger signal at ground level.
  	As an example, a commercial SMR signal at 864 MHz can combine with a cellular A-
band signal at 870 MHz to produce intermodulation products at 858 MHz and at 876 MHz.  The 
876 MHz product falls in the cellular A-band and therefore is not germane to this discussion; 
however, the 858 MHz signal falls in the 851-869 MHz band and could be licensed to a public 
safety system.  If the public safety system is operating on 858 MHz, and if the SMR and cellular 
A-band providers are colocated on a tower or building in its service area, the public safety 
mobile and portable units could experience interference in the immediate vicinity of the 
colocated CMRS site due to the relatively strong signals from the commercial SMR and cellular 
A-band operator creating intermodulation interference in the public safety receiver.
  	Wideband noise interference usually becomes visible only after intermodulation 
interference is eliminated.  It should be noted that commercial SMR and cellular operators are 
not the only contributors to a higher noise floor.  Other RF sources, such as active television 
reception systems, cellular antennae flashing light displays, and computer RF emissions also 
increase the noise floor and can interfere with public safety communications.
  	For example, in 1990, 19 MHz of SMR spectrum was exhausted in most major markets 
despite serving only about one million users.  The subsequent evolution of SMRs to digital, 
cellular-like, frequency reuse technology dramatically increased their capacity enabling the same 
19 MHz to support more than eight million users  an eightfold capacity increase over the 1994 
industry total.  See Industrial Communications, October 13, 1989; Implementation of Section 
6002(B) of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993: Annual Report and Analysis of 
Competitive Market Conditions with Respect to Commercial Mobile Services, First Report, 10 
FCC Rcd. 8844, 8855-57  35-39 (1995) (First Competition Report). 
  	47 U.S.C.  337(a).
   	See In the Matter of Service Rules for the 746-764 and 776-794 MHz Bands, and 
Revisions to Part 27 of the Commissions Rules, Second Report and Order, 15 FCC Rcd 5299 
(2000).
  	Id. at  12.
  	PSWAC Final Report, September 11, 1996.
  	First Report and Order at  2, citing Report and Order, ET Docket No. 97-157, 12 FCC 
Rcd 22, 953 (1997).
  	Analog broadcast television stations, including those operating in the 700 MHz band 
(UHF Channels 60-69) are permitted by statute to continue operations until their markets are 
converted to digital television, which is not scheduled to occur until at least December 31, 2006.  
See 47 U.S.C.  337(e).  The Commission must extend this date in certain circumstances, 
including the lack of significant penetration of digital television within a market.  See id. at         
 309(j)(14).  See also In the Matter of Service Rules for the 746-764 and 776-794 MHz Bands, 
and Revisions to Part 27 of the Commissions Rules, Order on Reconsideration of the Third 
Report and Order, WT Docket No. 99-168, FCC 01-258 (released Sept. 17, 2001) (adopting 
initiatives to expedite the clearance of broadcast television operations in UHF Channels 60-69).  
  	Supra. at p. 3 and n. 3.
  	PSWN Petition at 10.
  	Id. at 15.
  	Id. at 14.
  	Equipment meeting the specialized public safety needs of the APCO 25 standard is 
already available for 800 MHz use and is well along in development for adjacent 700 MHz 
channels.  In short, expanding the amount of exclusive, contiguous public safety spectrum at 800 
MHz adjacent to the new 700 MHz public safety allocation is a far more effective and efficient 
long term plan than establishing additional public safety spectrum in another band, particularly in 
the higher bands with propagation characteristics requiring more infrastructure to meet 
ubiquitous public safety coverage requirements.  
  	This reallocation plan takes into account Nextels consolidation over the past decade of 
the majority of commercially-available 800 MHz land mobile radio spectrum.  The fact that one 
CMRS licensee in this band, Nextel, holds many of the EA licenses and site-by-site licenses on 
the proposed new 20 MHz public safety block at 800 MHz, significantly simplifies the 
incumbent retuning and relocations necessary to effectuate an 800 MHz Land Mobile Service 
band realignment.       
  	See Exhibit B for a chart depicting the proposed new 800 MHz Land Mobile Radio band 
plan, and a chart depicting all of the reallocations and redesignations necessary to carry out the 
proposed realignment.
  	A total of five MHz of this 10 MHz block is currently allocated for SMR use with the 
remaining five MHz allocated for B/ILT use.   The SMR and B/ILT channels are allocated on an 
alternating, interleaved basis.  Because all licensees will initially be using comparable noise-
limited system architecture, this interleaved spectrum does not pose an interference risk.  To the 
extent that these licensees desire to migrate eventually to interference-limited systems, the 
Frequency Coordinators for 900 MHz can assign these channels to separate such uses.    
  	Any B/ILT licensees remaining on these channels after a voluntary relocation period 
would have secondary status only, i.e., they may not interfere with public safety communications 
and must accept any interference resulting from the primary public safety operations.  
  	The Commission should establish a filing window for first-come, first-served incumbent 
relocation applications to encourage these incumbent licensees to migrate to the largely vacant 
900 MHz current SMR spectrum or the 700 MHz spectrum.
  	See 47 U.S.C.  158(d)(2) (FCC may waive payment of an application fee "for good 
cause shown, where such action would promote the public interest").

  	For example, while it has been possible to undertake careful frequency coordination in 
some cases, it is increasingly difficult to do so in the current environment as the result of two 
trends.  First, local jurisdictions have become increasingly interested in requiring CMRS 
operators to collocate on the same transmission towers.  This collocation has led to increased 
combinations of signals by commercial operators and thus increased interference to public safety 
communications.  Second, CMRS operators are now deploying automated frequency use 
algorithms to maximize the moment-by-moment efficiency of their spectrum use.  This 
development makes it more difficult to account for a particular public safety system through 
frequency coordination, particularly if multiple CMRS systems each employing automated 
assignment programs need to be coordinated.  Given both these trends, frequency coordination is 
impractical at best when CMRS channel use restrictions are required to avoid IM interference 
with public safety frequencies, particularly when multiple CMRS carriers are involved.  
  	A guard band is required on the base-to-mobile link.  It is normally not required on the 
mobile-to-base link because (a) the signal levels from CMRS mobile transmitters are generally 
significantly smaller than the signal levels from public safety mobile transmitters, and (b) the 
public-safety base station receivers are generally located where they cannot receive destructive 
interference from CMRS mobile transmitters.
  	Nonprofit associations certified by the Commission for frequency coordination include: 
Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International, Inc. (APCO), 
Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), Forestry Conservation 
Communications Association (FCCA) and International Municipal Signal Association 
(IMSA).
  	This process may be simplified by simply transferring in its entirety the existing 
NPSPAC assignments in a regional planning area to a comparable spectrum sub-block in the new 
20 MHz public safety channel block.  This White Paper recommends that the Commission 
consult with the public safety community, existing frequency coordinators, and equipment 
manufacturers to determine the most efficacious way to identify relocation assignments for 
NPSPAC incumbents.    
  	Nextel has expended, on a voluntary basis, significant resources for modified antennas, 
special combiners, custom-made filters, modified base stations, interference drive testing, signal 
strength mapping, intermodulation prediction and analysis, and interference monitoring, as well 
as tens of thousands of man hours in carrying out these activities, to identify the source or 
sources of CMRS  public safety interference and to develop and implement fixes.  AT&T 
Wireless and other cellular carriers are also incurring similar costs and overhead to mitigate   
interference on a case-by-case basis.         
  	Nextel would provide this contribution contingent upon the Commissions adoption of a 
Final Order: (1) creating a new digital advanced SMR channel block as described herein at 
816/824  861/869 MHz; (2) assigning to Nextel licenses for the 6 MHz of spectrum (the current 
NPSPAC channels) in the new advanced SMR channel block; and (3) assigning to Nextel 
nationwide licenses for a contiguous 10 MHz of MSS spectrum at 2.1 MHz reallocated for 
terrestrial commercial mobile use.    
  	In addition to this contribution to public safety retuning costs, Nextel will also bear the 
costs of its own relocation out of channels 1 400 to the new digital SMR spectrum block.  
Nextel holds many of the EA and site-by-site licenses in this spectrum.  Moreover, Nextel will 
have approximately 2 MHz less spectrum at 800 MHz at the completion of retuning and will 
have to commence construction of a 2.1 MHz network in lieu of its planned developments at 700 
MHz and 900 MHz.  Accordingly, Nextel will incur more relocation costs than any other 
licensee under the 800 MHz realignment plan.       
  	B/ILT and traditional SMR licensees will contribute to this effort by paying their own 
costs of relocation. Many B/ILT users will be able to simply retune their systems to their new 
allocated frequencies, thus keeping their costs to a minimum.  Arguably, however, B/ILT users 
also will benefit from access to interference-free contiguous spectrum, particularly if they choose 
to relocate to their new homes at 700 MHz or 900 MHz, and therefore also should contribute to 
the fund to relocate public safety.  In addition, the Commission should support before the 
Congress an appropriations request to assist public safety communications entities with the costs 
of retuning to carry out the 800 MHz realignment plan.     
  	Such a public-private partnership would be similar to the many highly successful federal 
programs that offer matching funds to stimulate state or local government participation in 
essential programs.  For example, the Interstate Highway System was originally conceived as a 
national defense program to speed the movement of army and other defense forces and material 
throughout the country; the federal government offered 70 percent funding, provided the states 
matched it with the remaining 30 percent.  See Richard F. Weingroff, Federal-Aid Highway Act 
of 1956: Creating the Interstate System, Public Roads On-Line at 9 (1996) 
<http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/summer96/p96su10.htm>; Financing Federal-Aid Highways, 
Appendix G: Federal Share and Availability for Significant Programs 44 (U.S. Dept. of 
Transportation Federal Highway Administration, May 1992) (noting that the federal government 
currently funds 80 percent of the interstate system).  Urban mass transit, hospital construction, 
irrigation projects, rural electrification and many other governmental programs use this type of 
shared funding approach.  See, e.g., id. (mass transit); Center for Public Service, Government's 
50 Greatest Endeavors:  Enhancing the Nation's Health Care Infrastructure, p. 1-2, Nov. 12, 
2001 <www.brook.edu/gs/cps/50ge/endeavors/healthcare.htm> (hospital construction); Larry 
Todd, Bureau of Reclamation, Statement on S. 2881: Small Reclamation Water Resources Act of 
2000, July 25, 2000 <www.doi.gov/ocl/2000/s2881.htm> (irrigation projects); Office of 
Industrial Technologies, NICE3, Nov. 12, 2001 <www.oit.doe.gov/nice3> (describing the cost-
sharing program created by the Department of Energy to promote energy efficiency and stating 
that non-federal funds must account for at least 50 percent of the total cost of the project). 
  	See Amendment of Part 90 of the Commissions Rules to Facilitate Future Development 
of SMR Systems in the 800 MHz Frequency Band, First Report and Order, Eighth Report and 
Order, and Second Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making, 11 FCC Rcd. 1463, 1510,  79 
(1995), affd by Memorandum Opinion and Order on Reconsideration, 14 FCC Rcd. 17556, 
17577,  38 (1999).
  	In most cases replacement equipment will not be necessary because existing public safety 
system hardware can be returned to the new public safety channel block.
  	Some of these incumbents may choose over time to take service from commercial 
providers and surrender their secondary channel assignments.  
  	For example, some utility companies are implementing high power, high site iDEN 
systems, to obtain more capacity and robust in-building coverage.  These systems and high-site, 
high power traditional analog SMR and B/ILT system designs should be able to coexist with 
little or no special planning or frequency coordination.  Alternatively, the Special Coordinator 
should create set-aside spectrum for these types of systems, or the FCC should impose operating 
requirements or other limiting parameters to ensure compatibility.    
  	See Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information 
Administration, Request for Comment on Energy, Water and Railroad Service Providers 
Spectrum Use Study, 66 FR 18447 (2001).  NTIA has been directed by Congress to prepare a 
report by December 21, 2001 on the spectrum needs of these entities, and, six months after 
NTIAs report has been released the Commission similarly has been directed by Congress to 
submit and report on the actions that could be taken by the Commission to address the needs 
identified by NTIA.
  	The B/ILT Special Coordinator could set-aside part of the 900 MHz channel block for 
critical infrastructure radio communications systems used by public utility operators.  Such 
systems could include wireless communications to dispatch service and maintenance personnel 
and help control, monitor and maintain generating systems, electric grids, gas pipelines, water 
distribution systems and similar critical utility operations.
  	Under these circumstances, a voluntary negotiating period in which to reach agreement 
on a retuning proposal could delay substantially the solution and thus would not be in the public 
interest. 
  	As discussed previously, Nextel already holds nearly all of the incumbent EA and site-
by-site licenses in the current 816/821  861/866 MHz portion of the new advanced SMR block 
and would retain these licenses.  
  	The Public Safety Special Coordinator would notify the B/ILT Special Coordinator so 
that any necessary moves of B/ILT and analog SMR stations could be completed to permit the 
relocations necessary to eliminate the interference.   
  	47 U.S.C.  4(i), 303(c), 303(f), 303(r), and 316.
  	Amendment of the Commissions Rules Relative to the Licensing of Microwave Radio 
Stations Used to Relay Television Signals to Community Antenna Television Systems, First 
Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 1 FCC 2d 897,  32 (1965 
Reallocation Order).
  	1965 Reallocation Order  35.
  	Redevelopment of Spectrum to Encourage Innovation in the Use of New 
Telecommunications Technologies, First Report and Order and Third Notice of Proposed Rule 
Making, 7 FCC Rcd 6886,  1 (1992) (Emerging Technologies Order).  Ultimately the 
Commission allocated this spectrum for PCS.
  	Id.  26.
  	Redevelopment of Spectrum to Encourage Innovation in the Use of New 
Telecommunications Technologies, Memorandum Opinion and Order, 9 FCC Rcd. 1943,  34 
(1994).
  	Association of Public Safety Communications Officials-International, Inc. v. FCC, 76 
F.3d 395, 400 (D.C. Cir. 1996).  
  	47 U.S.C.  309(j).
  	47 U.S.C.  309(j)(6). See also Applications of TV Active, LLC et al. for Consent to the 
Assignment of Licenses in the 218-219 MHz Service, Order on Reconsideration, DA 01-2503, 
FCC File No. 0000334630, 2001 WL 1312891,  21, n.70 (Oct. 26, 2001) (Section 309(j)(6)(C) 
and (D) of the Communications Act, 47 U.S.C.  309(j)(6)(C)-(D), makes clear that the use of 
competitive bidding in spectrum allocation does not diminish the Commissions authority to 
regulate spectrum licenses.).
  	See, e.g., Establishment of a Spectrum Utilization Policy for the Fixed and Mobile 
Services Use of Certain Bands between 947 MHz and 40 GHz, First Report and Order, Gen. 
Docket No. 82-334, 54 Rad. Reg. 2d (P & F) 1001 (1983) (12 GHz incumbent Operational Fixed 
Service licensees given option of retaining their existing licensed facilities on a secondary basis 
to Direct Broadcast Satellite Service, or relocating their operations on a preferential basis during 
a five-year accommodation period) (citing, inter alia, sections 4(i), 303(c), and 303(r) of the 
Act).
  	Ashbacker Radio Corp. v. FCC, 326 U.S. 327 (1945) (Ashbacker).  
  	47 U.S.C.  309(j).
  	47 U.S.C.  316(a)(1) (Any station license or construction permit may be modified by 
the Commission either for a limited time or for the duration of the term thereof, if, in the 
judgment of the Commission such action will promote the public interest).
  	Commercial users would swap their current licenses in return for alternative spectrum 
licenses providing comparable replacement spectrum in order to help eliminate interference to 
800 MHz public safety communications systems.  For example, Nextel would swap a total of 16 
MHz on which it holds licenses today  8 MHz from 800 MHz and 4 MHz each from 700 MHz 
and 900 MHz  and will receive 16 MHz in return  10 MHz from 2.1 GHz MSS and 6 MHz 
from the 821/824  866/869 NPSPAC channels.  B/ILT licensees would likewise swap their 800 
MHz licenses for comparable 700 MHz or 900 MHz licenses to facilitate the interference-
resolving 800 MHz spectrum realignment, while public safety licensees in the NPSPAC channels 
are simply exchanging those licenses for comparable spectrum rights in the new consolidated 
806/816  851/861 MHz public safety channel block.
  	Ashbacker, 326 U.S. at 332.  
  	Rainbow Broadcasting Co. v. FCC, 949 F.2d 405, 410 (D.C. Cir. 1991). See also 
Amendment of Section 73.606(b), Table of Allotments, Television Broadcast Stations and 
Section 73,622(b), Table of Allotments, Digital Television Broadcast Stations (Buffalo, New 
York), Report and Order, 14 FCC Rcd. 11856,  12 (1999) (Channel Swap Order) (in the 
case of channel exchanges, the rule of Ashbacker does not apply because the channels are 
occupied).
  	See, e.g. Channel Swap Order. 
  	Amendment of the Commissions Rules to Permit FM Channel and Class Modifications 
by Application, Report and Order, 8 FCC Rcd. 4735,  16 (1993) (citing U.S. v. Storer 
Broadcasting Co., 351 U.S. 192 (1956)).  See also Aeronautical Radio, Inc. v. FCC, 928 F.2d 
428, 439 (D.C. Cir. 1991) (the FCC may reject, without a hearing, applications that do not meet 
valid eligibility requirements); Amendment of the Commissions Rules Regarding Modification 
of FM Broadcast Licenses to Higher Class Co-channel or Adjacent Channels, Report and Order, 
60 Rad. Reg. 2d (P & F) 114,  17 (1986) (The Commission can promulgate rules limiting 
eligibility to apply for a newly allotted channel in circumstances where, in its determination, 
such action promotes the public interest, convenience and necessity.).
  	See 47 U.S.C.  309(j)(1) (If, consistent with the obligations described in paragraph 
(6)(E), mutually exclusive applications are accepted for any initial license or construction permit, 
then, except as provided in paragraph (2), the Commission shall grant the license or permit to a 
qualified applicant through a system of competitive bidding that meets the requirements of this 
subsection.).
  	47 U.S.C.  309(j)(2)(A).
  	Amendment of the Commissions Rules to Relocate the Digital Electronic Message 
Service from the 18 GHz Band to the 24 GHz Band and to Allocate the 24 GHz Band for Fixed 
Service, Memorandum Opinion and Order, 13 FCC Rcd. 15147,  59 (1998) (citations omitted).
  	See Amendment of Part 2 of the Commissions Rules to Allocate Spectrum Below 3 GHz 
for Mobile-and Fixed Services to Support the Introduction of New Advanced Wireless Services, 
Including Third Generation Wireless Systems, Memorandum Opinion and Order and Further 
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, ET Docket No. 00-258 (Aug. 20, 2001) (2 GHz MO&O and 
FNPRM).
  	See Amendment of Section 2.106 of the Commissions Rules to Allocate Spectrum at 2 
GHz for Use by the Mobile Satellite Service, Second Report and Order and Second 
Memorandum Opinion and Order, ET Docket No. 95018, 15 FCC Rcd. 12315, 12326-27 (2000).
  	2 GHz MO&O and FNPRM at  32-34.
52

-59-