FCC lifts Sprint deadline to swap some channels

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday agreed to give Sprint Nextel more time to swap some wireless spectrum frequencies with public safety agencies. Sprint was facing a June 26 deadline to vacate channels that its Nextel wireless network uses in the 800 MHz band. The swap is designed to eliminate radio interference in that portion of the spectrum for the thousands of public safety agencies across the country that regularly use it. While the deadline was set three years ago, work on the swap has been bogged down by technical and operational problems, opening the possibility that Sprint could lose access to channels where it serves around 16 million Nextel customers. The company wasn't alone in its trouble, however. About 500 agencies asked the FCC to extend their deadlines, which the agency agreed to do earlier this week. The FCC agreed Thursday to grant a waiver to the June 26 deadline for some of the channels and is still considering Sprint's request on the remainder. The waiver comes with a number of conditions. Sprint must hand over its Nextel network channels within 60 days after the public agencies say they're ready to make the switch, and it must ensure agencies using former Nextel channels won't suffer interference from nearby channels Nextel still uses.
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