The FCC dismissed the state of Indiana’s May 2011 request...

rebanding of the state’s 800 MHz equipment. “Indiana claims that its obligation to deploy new radios with replacement channels programmed into them arose after it had already deployed the radios, i.e., it claims the obligation arose on a date approximately 30 days after the parties executed the FRA [frequency reconfiguration agreement],” the FCC said (http://xrl.us/bnqod5). “Therefore, Indiana argues, the cost of reprogramming the radios that Indiana deployed before that date should be Sprint’s responsibility.” The FCC didn’t see the merits in Indiana’s recent arguments and dissected them throughout the new order. “The operative question before the [Public Safety and Homeland Security] Bureau in this case was not one of contract,” the FCC said. “It was whether or not it was reasonably foreseeable to Indiana that, if it deployed the new radios without the replacement channels programmed into them, it would have to recall the radios from the field for reprogramming. Relying on record evidence, the Bureau correctly resolved the question: the cost of reprogramming the radios, sought in Indiana’s change notice request, was reasonably foreseeable.” The commission also slammed Indiana for submitting “pleadings so patently in violation of the Commission’s procedural rules,” which may affect efficient 800 MHz band reconfiguration, it said. It called the state’s appeals “procedurally defective” and “fundamentally at odds with the Commission’s dual goals of timely eliminating objectionable interference to public safety communications and timely making more spectrum available for public safety use."