Remedy debated as Nextel, safety channels clash

Making a pre-dawn raid to execute an arrest warrant seven months ago, three Cambridge police officers found their radios would not work inside the suspect's building -- leaving them unable to call for backup if the arrest turned violent.

Several weeks later, police breaking up a 2 a.m. brawl at an apartment building suffered the same lost coverage. So did a fire engine crew calling for a paramedic and a deputy chief investigating a smoke-filled building.

In each case, the source of trouble identified by Cambridge Fire Chief Gerald R. Reardon, who oversees the city's public safety network, was interference from Nextel Communications Inc. cellphone sites. Last month, when Nextel activated a temporary signal amplifier at a construction project, Reardon said it caused so much interference that fire officials had to shut down the main city radio system for hours to fix it.

Cambridge exemplifies a growing problem across the state and nation. As Nextel's walkie-talkie cellphones have boomed in popularity, growing to over 13 million subscribers, so has reported interference with public-safety radio systems that operate in radio channels closely interlaced with Nextel's.

The Federal Communications Commission, after two years of review, is close to voting on a $850 million-plus proposal from Nextel to solve the problem by reshuffling spectrum licenses and reprogramming tens of thousands of emergency officials' radios. But the plan is coming under mounting criticism from rivals, particularly Verizon Wireless, who contend Nextel would grab a $7 billion windfall in new radio-spectrum licenses.

Public safety agencies report some problems of interference with virtually all carriers, but Nextel accounts for the large majority. Unlike carriers such as Verizon, Cingular, and Sprint PCS that were awarded or bought designated wireless telephone licenses, Nextel in the 1980s amassed a nationwide collection of what are sometimes called "cat and dog spectrum" licenses from taxi and delivery companies and private walkie-talkie services. Then it worked with Motorola Inc. to develop them for cellphone service operating at much higher-powered signals and for far more users. Many of these licenses fall in a part of the 800-megahertz band, formerly home to UHF television channels 70 and higher, that is also used by many police and fire departments.

Plainville Police Chief Ned Merrick, a past president of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, said, "Nextel is basically stepping all over us, because their signals are so much stronger.

"To their credit, Nextel stepped up to the plate and said, `We're going to try to get away from you,' " said Merrick, who has helped lead negotiations and is frustrated by the FCC's slow pace resolving the issue. "It's a typical federal bureaucracy. They've got one speed, and it's not fast." The FCC may take up the Nextel plan at an April 15 meeting, but has made no promises.

Blair Sutherland, director of telecommunications for the Massachusetts State Police, said, "We continue to find pockets of interference with our network. It will often appear without any warning and almost as quickly disappear before we can take any action with Nextel." On a staff of 11 radio engineers serving 2,300 troopers, Sutherland said, one devotes fully half his time to resolving chronic Nextel interference issues by getting the company to change frequencies used by certain base stations or to re-aim cellular antennas to reduce problems.

Sutherland said he is not aware of any life-threatening crises and praised Nextel for being responsive and cooperative. But Sutherland said the agency has not yet endorsed the Nextel plan because it would require reprogramming 10,000 radios used by troopers, corrections officers, and emergency management workers.

"We recognize that something has to be done, but we want to be responsible decision-makers," Sutherland said.

Nextel is also facing opposition from other carriers, particularly Verizon, and the industry's trade group, the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association. Two key elements of Nextel's plan are the segregation of Nextel channels from public safety channels in the 800-megahertz range, and the allocation to Nextel of new licenses in the 1.9-gigahertz range now used by Sprint PCS, T-Mobile, and other carriers.

Verizon spokeswoman J. Abra Degbor said her company believes the interference problems could be solved solely by reallocating Nextel and public-safety licenses within the 800-megahertz range. Verizon says the new licenses Nextel proposes to get in the 1.9-gigahertz range could be auctioned by the federal government for $5.3 billion.

Just swapping licenses in the 800-megahertz range "would benefit public safety without granting a huge, unlawful windfall to a single private entity," Degbor said. Verizon contends Nextel's total net gain -- after subtracting what it pays to reprogram public safety radios -- would exceed $7 billion, because the new clear swaths of contiguous spectrum are far more valuable than Nextel's current hodgepodge of frequencies.

But Nextel spokeswoman Leigh Horner called Verizon's estimates wildly overblown and said Nextel's plan would have the side benefit of also fixing many less serious interference problems caused by other cellular carriers including Verizon, Cingular, and AT&T Wireless by moving public safety channels further away from those carriers. All told, Horner said, the plan represents a $2 billion net contribution by Nextel. Verizon's proposal to only reshuffle licenses, Horner said, is like stuffing a minivan full of people, locking the doors, and then telling them to reorganize themselves by shortest to tallest.

"It doesn't work," Horner said. "Their interest is in competitively disadvantaging Nextel."

Craig McCaw, the cable television and cellular pioneer who owns a 13 percent stake in Nextel, said during a recent appearance at Boston College: "It's certainly not a financial windfall for Nextel by any means. This is purely competitors who are afraid of a company that has innovated and has embarrassed them." Referring to last year's launch by Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless of DirectConnect-style services, McCaw said: "They used to laugh at push-to-talk. Now they're trying to emulate it, and if they can't do that, kill it."

And telecom politics are probably the furthest thing from the mind of one prominent supporter of the proposed realignment. Reardon, the Cambridge fire chief, said that after years of grappling with interference from a dozen Nextel transmitters within the city's five square miles, he thinks the new plan probably "makes the most sense. I'm not saying this is going to be a panacea, but I believe this would solve 95 to 98 percent of our problems."

Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com.