WASHINGTON-Although most of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau’s second notice of proposed rule making regarding federal, state and local public-safety spectrum through the year 2010 passed muster with the industry, there are a few sticking points that commenters addressed at length late last month.
The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International Inc. supported the continued concept of regional planning committees, but the group also cited a need for a national planning committee to “establish guidelines for regional committee operation, adopt generic channel plans, develop and refine interoperability channel designations, adopt criteria and guidelines for use of `give-back’ channels, and provide a vehicle for coordination on inter-region planning.” However, most planning decisions should be made at the regional level, especially those dealing with interoperability.
APCO also volunteered to offer technical support to the regional planning committees along with a common database and financial support; in return, it wants to be designated as the frequency coordinator for all new spectrum allocated to public safety, and it wants to charge coordination fees.
Regarding interoperability, APCO disagrees with any FCC attempt to allocate exclusively a significant portion of the spectrum in the 746 MHz-806 MHz band for interoperability; only 10 percent of that 24 megahertz should be earmarked for interoperability. “Most of the 24 megahertz must be available primarily for intra-agency communication requirements, which constitutes the bulk of public-safety communications and emergency response activity,” APCO argued. “There was never a finding that anything close to 25 megahertz is necessary for interoperability alone.” In addition, APCO stood behind the Project 25 Phase 1 common air interface as the digital baseline for the band, because the industry already has adopted and is implementing Project 25 strictures.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, responsible for managing federal use of radio spectrum, believes federal agencies should have the same access to the new public-safety channels for both interoperability and general use. “At present, the federal public safety community does not have any spectrum allocated for use in the 800 MHz band, where many state and local public safety systems now operate,” it wrote. Pointing to the many recent disasters, like the TWA Flight 800 crash, during which a number of agencies would have benefited from interoperable communications.
The agency disagreed with the FCC’s tentative conclusion that general-use spectrum be limited only to non-governmental use. “Federal users should be allowed to utilize these channels in a partnership or shared-system environment. This would achieve greater spectrum efficiency and permit the pooling of scarce resources, including funds necessary to build systems, to invest in infrastructure and to cover maintenance costs,” it wrote. “The proposed usage of this general-use spectrum would be for new types of communications, such as images and video … the transfer of fingerprints, mug shots or even slow/full-motion video.”
NTIA also favors allocating spectrum for interop below 512 MHz, and that allocating specific amounts of spectrum for specific types of communications should be based on the user’s needs.
