Public safety groups reacted happily to two announcements in early November that greatly increased the likelihood that the Federal Communication Commission's order supporting the Consensus Plan — requiring Nextel to clear the 800MHZ band to stop interference in public safety communications — would be implemented in 2005.

Nextel competitor Verizon Wireless announced it had reached an agreement with Nextel on Nov. 2 and would drop any legal challenges to the FCC's order. On Nov. 8, another potential legal obstacle fell when the U.S. Government Accountability Office announced it would not challenge the legality of the FCC's order. A congressional member ordered the GAO to investigate whether the FCC overstepped its bounds when it awarded 10MHz of the 1.9GHz spectrum to Nextel in exchange for Nextel footing the bill for rebanding. The GAO opinion found that the FCC order does not violate federal law but noted that the 800MHz item “reflects an expanded use of the Commission's authority for which there was no exact precedent.”

As Nextel considered whether or not to accept the FCC's order, the favorable GAO report and agreement with Verizon Wireless removed the two greatest points of legal uncertainty.

The International Association of Fire Chiefs and other major public safety groups that worked for two years to get FCC approval of the Consensus Plan were awaiting publication of the FCC's order in the Federal Register in mid-November. Once the order is published in the Federal Register, Nextel will have 75 days to announce its intentions, so Nextel may not announce its decision until January, but given the agreement with Verizon and the GAO's ruling, most industry analysts believed there was little question the wireless carrier will agree to the FCC's order and begin implementation in 2005.

“The bottom line is that this agreement between Nextel and Verizon is certainly a significant agreement, but in terms of the official actions of the IAFC and Nextel, we're still in a holding pattern, waiting for these things to work themselves out,” said Matt Spengler, government relations manager for the IAFC.

In the meantime, the IAFC urged its members to actively support an amendment by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to the National Intelligence Reform Act pending in Congress. McCain's amendment would impose a deadline on clearing 700MHz for public safety communications. In 1997, Congress directed the FCC to allocate 24MHz of spectrum to public safety in the 700MHz band. The new spectrum would be used by public safety agencies for additional voice/data capacity, new advanced high-speed data, imaging and video communications, and greater interoperability.

Congress set a date of Dec. 31, 2006, for television stations to vacate their analog broadcast channels as part of the transition to digital television, including channels 60 69 (the 700MHz band). But the House version of the bill left a large loophole in the law.

“The loophole requires that the spectrum only needs to be freed up when at least 85% of television households in relevant communities have access to digital television,” explains Spengler. “And so, because we're having such a slow transition, that means that spectrum may be bottled up in the large metropolitan areas indefinitely.”

In contrast, the McCain amendment sets a specific deadline, requiring broadcasters to clear the 700MHZ band for public safety use by Dec. 31, 2007.

Congress was going into a lame-duck session following the November elections as this report was written, and differences between the House and Senate versions of the intelligence reform bill were being hammered out in committee. The IAFC was providing information for its members via its Web site to communicate fire service support of the McCain amendment in the final conference report.

“In light of the election results, it's very much in the air,” said Spengler. “So that's why an amount of pressure the fire service can bring to bear on this issue is very valuable.”

See the IAFC Web site at www.iafc.org for an update on the FCC'S rebanding order and status of the National Intelligence Reform Act.