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800 MHz resolution delayed -again Page 2 of 5 advanced data services. The Consensus Plan does not call for Nextel to make any additional payments, but most analysts believe the FCC will ask the wireless operator to pay an additional $2 billion for the spectrum - a price that still would be far less than the spectrum is worth, according to Verizon Wireless. With so many aspects of the issue in dispute, only a couple of items seem clear. First, the notion of trying to solve the interference issue via technical solutions - a proposal backed initially by Nextel's wireless competitors and utility companies -appears to be dead. Even Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeffrey Nelson said rebanding is "the right thing to do" within 800 MHz. But Verizon continues to oppose the part of the plan that would award Nextel additional airwaves outside 800 MHz, claiming that such spectrum should be auctioned. This belief likely means any FCC order based on the Consensus Plan will be challenged in court, which could delay the associated rebanding at least another year. "The FCC's scrambling, and they're realizing this is going to court -the briefs have already been written," Baca said. "They're just waiting for the FCC to make a decision." Opposition to the FCC awarding valuable 1.9 GHz spectrum to Nextel has been well chronicled, with Verizon describing such a proposal as a spectrum "windfall" to Nextel in filings with the FCC. If the 1.9 GHz airwaves were available for an "immediate" auction and licensed based on PCS rules - something Nextel expects, according to spokesman Tim O'Regan -Verizon said it would submit an opening bid of $5 billion. A Nextel ex parte letter to FCC said the Verizon vow "lacks credibility," noting that the many conditions cited "provide Verizon several ready excuses to retract its bid offer." More important, Nextel described the proposal as "irrelevant," because auction proceeds must be given to the U.S. Treasury and cannot be earmarked to pay for rebanding, as Nextel has committed to do. And funding is a big issue to public safety, especially with many communities struggling to stretch their budgets to meet unfunded Homeland Security mandates from the federal government, said Harlin McEwen, chairman of the communications and technology committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. "If [Verizon Wireless] got this to go to auction and they paid $5 billion for that spectrum, we have no solution to the problem," McEwen said. "As I told [Verizon], `Unless you can come up with a solution that pays for our problem and fixes it, then you aren't doing anything for us -you're just helping yourselves."' In its most recent ex parte letter to the FCC, Nextel characterized Verizon's vazious actions as "anti- competitive." At least one independent source said there is truth to that speculation. "Verizon has basically told me they are acting as a spoiler," said one source, who requested anonymity. "They want to stretch out Nextel's balance sheet." Verizon contends Nextel has taken advantage of the opportunities presented in a post-Sept. 11 environment to push a plan that benefits its bottom line in return for addressing an interference problem Nextel should have addressed more effectively in previous yeazs. "[Nextel] is amultibillion-dollar corporation," Nelson said. "This is King Midas standing in the welfare http://iwce-mrt.com/microsites/magazinearticle.asp?mode=print&magazinearticleid=198444... 6/24/04