WASHINGTON – Numerous U.S. public safety organizations, including the Association of Public Safety Communication Officials-International, the International Association of Police Chiefs and the National Sheriffs Association, recently sent an open letter to the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of State asking that both agencies bring pressure against the Mexican government in order to finish 800 MHz spectrum rebanding that began in 2004.
The 800 MHz rebanding goal is to reduce the interference on emergency communication systems. Rebanding action still needs to be completed in a handful of locations near the U.S.-Mexico border, including Los Angeles and San Diego.
“Progress on the 800 MHz band reconfiguration along the Mexican border has lagged behind the rest of the United States due to the complexities involved in revising the international agreements between the two countries governing shared use of the 800 MHz spectrum on both sides of the border,” the letter states. “While the FCC and U.S. stakeholders have moved forward in implementing the protocol (to reband the 800 MHz spectrum) on the U.S. side of the border, their progress is currently stalled because the Mexican government has not yet directed Mexican 800 MHz operators in the border area to retune to their new channels in accordance with the revised protocol. This blocks U.S. public safety licensees throughout the border area from retuning to their new U.S. channels.”
The letter reiterated the need for U.S. public safety officials to have access to open uniform spectrum free of interference by commercial operators, and asks the FCC and State Department to “escalate” the matter with their counterparts in Mexico and make this issue a top U.S. priority.
The U.S. and Mexico in 2012 signed a pair of protocols for sharing spectrum in the 800 MHz and 1.9 GHz bands along the U.S.-Mexico border associated with rebanding efforts in the 800 MHz band. The FCC noted at that time the agreements were the beginning of the final phase of those rebanding efforts and will allow for the rollout of public safety mobile broadband services across the area.
The 800 MHz rebanding efforts are being headed by Sprint, which gained control of the process as part of its $35 billion acquisition of Nextel Communications. Nextel was obligated to fix an interference problem public safety was experiencing because Nextel’s commercial iDEN systems and spectrum holdings were interleaved with public safety. In return for $4.8 billion in retuning costs and a payment to the U.S. Treasury, Nextel received 10 megahertz of spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band, also known as the G Block.
