FCC Powell Asks For Nextel Spectrum Swap To Become Law

The FCC's Chairman, Michael Powell, was in front of Senators yesterday discussing a variety of spectrum issues like getting TV broadcasters to go digital, and threw a surprise item on the Agenda. Powell asked the lawmakers to take the Nextel Spectrum Swap plan, and make it law. We've discussed the Nextel Swap here extensively. If the government does pass the FCC proposal into law, according to WirelessWeek, the need for Nextel to approve the proposal becomes moot. However, that is an academic argument. In actuality, Nextel's buy-in on the plan is extremely important: If they buy-in, they will be motivated, and the difficult, complicated frequency migrations will happen quickly. If Nextel is not on board, however, we could expect lawsuits, lobbying, slow migrations, and other sundry classic heel-dragging techniques (all of which should be familiar to the FCC, since the TV broadcasters have been dancing that jig for years.) Hey...Wait a minute...wasn't TV industry resistance the first item of business for Powell at the Senate? So is what Powell said yesterday, in brief, "Senators, we're having trouble with the TV guys, let's crack down harder...and let's start Nextel down that same path."? Weird. The upside is that Nextel is likely to approve the swap proposal, so I question the need for a law to push the rope.

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