SIA urges FCC to Preserve 2 GHz MSS spectrum

Washington, DC – January 25, 2002 — Today, the Satellite Industry Association (“SIA”) submitted a letter in opposition to the Nextel White Paper recently submitted to the FCC.  Nextel’s proposal, designed to alleviate public safety spectrum interference, would require the FCC to grant Nextel nationwide control of 10 MHz of spectrum currently allocated to mobile satellite service (“MSS”).  MSS provides reliable nationwide and global critical telephone and data services to users in rural and remote locations that are underserved by terrestrial infrastructure.

“SIA doesn’t dispute the need to improve the interference environment for safety services,” said SIA Executive Director, Richard DalBello.  “However, the use of the band by Nextel is the cause of the interference problem in the first place. SIA believes that the responsibility for solving these problems should rest with Nextel and not be used as cover for consolidating and extending their nationwide spectrum footprint.”  The SIA letter also pointed out that by simply working with public safety users to replace older radios with modern equipment having improved selectivity, Nextel could greatly reduce inter-service sharing problems without the need for massive spectrum realignment.

SIA is a national trade association representing the leading U.S. satellite manufacturers, service providers, and launch service companies.  SIA serves as an advocate for the U.S. commercial satellite industry on regulatory and policy issues common to its members.  With member service companies providing a broad range of manufactured products and services, SIA represents the unified voice of the U.S. commercial satellite industry.

###

Additional media contacts:

Richard DalBello Executive Director Satellite Industry Association (703) 739-8357

David Cavossa Director, External Relations Satellite Industry Association (703) 739-8358