After two years of heated public debate and painstaking deliberation, the Federal Communications Commission on July 8 approved the major components of the Consensus Plan to resolve the problem of interference to public safety radio systems operating in the 800MHz band.

The plan was the solution endorsed by the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Sheriff's Association, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International and other major public safety organizations.

“For more than five years, public safety professionals have been struggling with unreliable and unclear communications, which has jeopardized lives and the citizens they protect. We applaud the FCC for its leadership and decision in support of the public safety community. We are grateful to FCC Chairman [Michael] Powell and the commissioners for their careful consideration in this important proceeding,” said Chief Ernest Mitchell, IAFC president.

The IAFC supported the FCC's decision because it will address the root cause of the interference problem by separating generally incompatible technologies. The FCC decision places responsibility for paying the cost of relocating 800MHz incumbents on Nextel Communications Inc.

The FCC commissioners unanimously voted to adopt the plan, which gives Nextel 1.9GHz of spectrum, worth an estimated $4.8 billion. In exchange, the Reston, Va.-based company will give up other spectrum and pay to reconfigure the airwaves it currently occupies to ensure public service communications systems are free of interference.

The reorganization would have to be completed within three years.

As expected, other wireless carriers denounced the decision, saying that it amounted to a “taxpayer giveaway” to Nextel. As this report went to press, Nextel's response was noncommittal. “We have an obligation to review all aspects of the decision to fully understand the implications to Nextel's shareholders,” the company said in an Associated Press report.

Nextel will make an anti-windfall payment to the U.S. Treasury Department the conclusion of the relocation process equal to the difference between the credits and the cost of relocating current users. To oversee the administrative and financial aspects of the band reconfiguration and to ensure that rebanding is achieved with minimal disruption to licensees, particularly public safety entities, the FCC created an independent transition administrator.

According to the FCC, the plan will result in an additional 4.5MHz of 800MHz-band spectrum, the equivalent of 90 additional two-way channels, becoming available to public safety, critical infrastructure and private wireless users, including 10 channels for public safety/critical infrastructure interoperability.

APCO International called the FCC's decision a “first step in the solution” for the interference in public safety communications and pledged to support the plan's implementation. APCO said it will focus on helping its members understand the FCC's plan.

But support for the FCC's decision from the public safety side was not universal. Calling the FCC's decision an endorsement of “the Nextel spectrum grab,” a group called the First Response Coalition called on Congress and the courts to overrule the FCC's decision. The coalition includes William Fox, commissioner of the Metropolitan Fire Association of New York City; the National Black Police Association; the Gray Panthers; the American Legislative Exchange Council; the National Black Chamber of Commerce; American Corn Growers Association; and California Seniors Coalition.

Gene Stilp, a volunteer firefighter, EMT and vice president of the Dauphin-Middle Paxton Fire Company #1 in Dauphin, Pa., is the group's coordinator. “This is a sad day for firefighters, police officers and other emergency personnel across America,” he said.

“Since 9/11 this administration has failed to provide funding to solve interoperability problems. Today's decision by the commission continues to ignore this critical need. They had a major opportunity here, but they ignored the needs of first responders in order to solve a political problem and to bail out Nextel.”

At presstime, it remained to be seen whether Nextel would agree to implement the plan or whether other telecommunications companies might delay implementation in the courts.