The Federal Communications Commission late last week adopted a transition plan to move private land mobile radio users below 800 MHz to more narrow channels of 12.5 kHz by Aug. 1, 1996 and to 6.25 kHz by Jan. 1, 2005.
Users can remain on 25 kHz channels if the narrowband efficiency standard is met, the FCC said. The government, which hopes to increase spectrum efficiency through this plan, first proposed refarming in 1992 and has been talking with industry for about three years. Industry originally sought a 26-year transition period; the government resisted.
Users will not be required to replace existing systems; the transition to narrowband equipment will be managed by type accepting only increasingly efficient equipment over the next 10 years, the FCC said.
“This transition plan will provide users with flexibility to choose the equipment and a transition schedule that best fulfills their technical and financial objectives. It also provides manufacturers with incentives to develop and market narrowband equivalent technology,” the commission said.
Mark Crosby, president of the Industrial Telecommunications Association Inc., said the 10-year transition period should give the industry enough time to make the changes. ITA, along with six other associations, had proposed a similar time line to the FCC on June 5.
In other action, the FCC gave industry three months to negotiate and submit a consensus consolidation proposal. The commission states that two to four broad categories would be reasonable; one category should be public safety, the FCC said. There currently are 19 radio service categories.
Also, the FCC established a narrowband channel plan based on current channel centers. Channels will be listed every 7.5 kHz in the 150-174 MHz VHF band and every 6.25 kHz in the 421-430, 450-470, 470-512 MHz UHF bands. Users can aggregate up to the equivalent of four narrowband channels if spectrum-efficient technology is used, the FCC said.
The FCC also imposed limits on allowable effective radiated power (ERP)/antenna height combinations of new stations based on the size of each station’s service area. The new limits are drawn from “safe harbor” tables submitted by the Land Mobile Communications Council.
