ALEXANDRIA, Va.-The Personal Communications Industry Association filed comments with
the Federal Communications Commission urging it to refrain from creating a separate radio service pool for oil
companies, utilities and railroads’ safety needs.
PCIA said it argued that every kind of private radio system has
important safety considerations and uses radio every day to maintain safe working conditions. Therefore, safety
function should not be limited to oil companies, utilities and railroads.
In its filing, PCIA argued the FCC’s
refarming proceeding, which consolidated all of the business and industrial pools into one, has been in effect for only
one year and thus it is premature to change the rules at this time. According to PCIA, out of the 20,000 applications it
coordinated last year, only two problems arose from pool consolidation.
“The FCC was on the right track a
year ago when it consolidated the radio service pools,” said Donald Vasek, PCIA senior manager of government
relations. “We have a solid system in place that is working. The old adage, ‘If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,’
certainly applies here.”
