Reconfiguration of the 800MHz band officially got underway last week when Nextel Communications formally accepted the Federal Communications Commission's order to pay for retuning to eliminate interference in public safety communications.

Nextel will pay all the costs of rebanding, which will affect an estimated 40,000 public safety organizations that operate 800MHz wireless communications, including many fire departments. The FCC’s Transition Administrator will coordinate and manage the rebanding and payments to reimburse organizations for their costs. Rebanding is set to begin June 27, 2005.

The telecommunications law firm, Shulman, Rogers, Gandal, Pordy & Ecker, PA, which includes lawyers and FCC licensing specialists that worked with public safety groups to formulate the Consensus Plan, has also established a 800MHzrebanding.com as a resource for the rebanding effort.

“Even if your region will not start formal rebanding anytime soon, the time to start planning is now," says the law firm's site, "because a successful system retune requires attention to detail, careful planning and crisp execution. Once you receive a rebanding notice from the Transition Administrator, you'll have only a brief period of time to negotiate (three month voluntary negotiations, three month mandatory negotiations). Many municipalities take that long just to hire outside consultants, so you'll want to be ready to go prior to receiving the notice. You have nothing to lose and much to gain by planning ahead. You should develop a detailed game plan before you take the field.”

Steps 800MHzrebanding.com recommends public safety organizations take to prepare include:

• Conduct a system inventory.
• Update your radio and user lists.
• Assess your staff to decide whether you need to hire outside contractors to help.
• Talk to your users and prepare them for the change on the horizon.
• Identify and contract the vendors you will need, including attorneys, engineers and project managers.
• Develop plans to limit disruption (such as reprogramming radios at shift changes).
  

Correction: An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect Internet address for the Transition Administrator's Web site. The site at www.800mhzrebanding.com is sponsored by the law firm of Shulman, Rogers, Gandal, Pordy & Ecker, P.A.