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.
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Additional media contacts:
|
Richard DalBello |
David Cavossa |