WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote in October to allow Sprint Nextel to continue operating on airwaves designated for firefighters and police officers until March 2010.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said Thursday that the order before the commission at its Oct. 15 meeting would adopt Sprint's proposal for vacating the swath of airwaves in stages, adding the final date when the channels should be vacated completely.
Sprint has been ordered to relocate to different channels in order to stop interference with communications among public-safety agencies.
The "spectrum swap" project stems from a 2004 agreement in which Nextel agreed to relocate its airwaves to end interference between the company's cellular signals and the wireless signals used by the nation's emergency-services and public-safety workers.
Subsequently, Nextel was acquired by Sprint.
-By Fawn Johnson, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9263; fawn.johnson@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
Posted to the site on 25th September 2008
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/33828.php