Saturday, May 3, 2008

Sprint Nextel's latest setback a win for Public Safety

Sprint Nextel must cease operations in certain portions of its wireless airwaves by June 26, 2008 to stop the interference its Motorola made iDEN cellular network causes to public-safety two way radio communications networks.

The company must comply with
an order issued by the Federal Communications Commission in September of last year as part of the Commissions long-running efforts to resolve the interference issues by 'rebanding' the 800 MHz band, said the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington on May 2.

In the Appeals Court opinion, a three-judge panel rejected Sprint's claim that the FCC's Order would "cripple the company's wireless network". Sprint, the third-biggest U.S. mobile-phone company, had also argued that the FCC order was "arbitrary and capricious" and would harm public safety.


Hurray! After almost 10 years of debate and political maneuvering,
it's about time.


NR