Nextel’s Consensus Plan, more than three months after being approved by the FCC, was published yesterday in the Federal Register, reports Telephony Magazine. That starts the clock on Nextel s decision-making timetable.
The plan to reduce Nextel interference would require Nextel to contribute $4.8 billion worth of cash and spectrum to reband 800 MHz users. In exchange for returning 10 Mhz, spread across the 700, 800 and 900Mhz bands, Nextel gets a 10MHz chunk at 1.9 GHz and a continuous 800 Mhz chunk. The total spectrum allocated to Nextel would remain nearly the same.
Nextel must decide whether it will pay for rebanding within 75 days after the item is published in the Federal Register. That would be Feb. 7, 2005.
Most analysts believe Nextel will agree to the terms of the FCC order, because the wireless carrier needs the contiguous spectrum at 800 MHz and 1.9 GHz it would receive through rebanding to offer advanced wireless services.
In the wake of a settlement with rival Verizon Wireless and a favorable opinion from the Government Accountability Office, legal issues are not expected to be a problem. In addition, Nextel will know by Dec. 22 whether anyone will seek judicial review of the FCC s order, according to an FCC spokesman. If there are no legal challenges, the biggest remaining questions for Nextel revolve around the carrier s requested changes to the order.
Nextel is Undecided On Flarion. Unstrung reports that Nextel will decide early next year whether it will opt for Flash-OFDM or CDMA 1x EV-DO (Evolution, Data Only) as the technology of choice for its national wireless broadband network.
The carrier has already deployed a trial of Flarion Technologies proprietary Flash-OFDM technology in North Carolina (See DailyWireless Nextel Launches Flarion), but has not ruled out the possibility of opting for industry standard EV-DO kit (see Nextel Steps Up Data Race and Nextel Flashes With Flarion).
We continue to be pleased with the results we are getting with the Raleigh/Durham trial, said CTO Barry J. West in Nextel s third quarter results conference last week. CDMA 1x EV-DO Revision A is also of significant interest to us (see DailyWireless Cellular At The Races). The thing we are looking for is the ability to extend the Internet and to be able to support voice over IP and both of these technologies appear to be good choices.
West reveals that Nextel has issued an RFP for the nationwide deployment of both technologies, due back in November.
It will take us a couple of months to digest and then make some decisions on which path to go, adds CEO Tim M. Donahue. We expect that in the first quarter of next year we will have all the information, we will be making a decision and then we will let you know when the build will start.
Unrelated to the approved Consensus Plan giving Nextel 10 MHz of PCS band (at 1.9GHz) and contiguous 800 MHz frequencies is another hefty chunk of spectrum that Nextel already owns; the MMDS band (at 2.5-2.7 GHz). Most of the 200 MHz swath of MMDS is now is divided into relatively large 15.5MHz blocks, with five such blocks going to ITFS (instructional tv) and three to broadband radio. The interleaving of low power MDS channels with high power ITFS channels, which provoked so much criticism from MDS operators, is now eliminated. Whether Nextel will try to integrate their MMDS band with PCS cellular is unknown.
Related DailyWireless articles include; FCC: Nextel Gets PCS Spectrum, Consensus Plan From FCC?, Consensus Plan Near?, Freq Consensus?, Localizing Consensus Plans, Happy Town, Nextel’s Flarion Goes Live, Nextel’s Consensus Move, Nextel Gets 2.1 & 2.5 GHz, 4G Clouds in the United States, 800 MHz Spectrum Swap Near?, and Nextel + Flarion.
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