|
WORKING GROUP CONTACTS:
Vice
Chair - Barry Einsig |
Radio & Wireless Working Group
|
|
Radio and Wireless spectrum is
a critcal resource for transit operators to ensure safe and
reliable transportation to the traveling public. In the past
decade this resource has become more and more scarce forcing
some operators to scramble to keep the resources they have
and others to delay system upgrades because those resources
were simply not available.
The Radio and Wireless Working Group's
mission is to (1) keep tabs on what is going on at the
Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) and the industry with regards to spectrum,
(2) provide the industry with reources to deal with their
individual spectrum issues, and (3) work to help guarantee
that mission critical functions in transit always have sufficient
spectrum resources.
If this is key to your organization and you either want
to say informed or will help be more involved, please send
me an email or drop me a line. We would like to hear from
you.
Sincerely,
-- Barry Einsig, Vice Chair
|
|
Issue:
800 MHz Rebanding |
Summary: In
August 2004, FCC issued an ambitious plan to mitigate serious
interference from Nextel
and other commercial wireless providers to public safety
radio systems operating in the 800 MHz band. This affects
systems
operating in the 806 to 824MHz and 851 to 869MHz ranges.
The plan is currently in progress and is scheduled to be
complete by June 2008. However, all indications are that
the plan
is not on schedule by a considerable amount.
Additional Information and Resources:
|
|
Frequency Refarming/ Narrowbanding
|
Summary: In
December 2004, FCC mandated that all private Land Mobile
Radio (LMR) users operating below
512 MHz move from 25 kHz channel spacing to 12.5 kHz channel
spacing and eventually to 6.25 kHz spacing. This most notibly
affects the frequency bands 150-174 MHz and 421-512 MHz.
The current
deadlines
are:
- January 1, 2011, prohibit the manufacture and importation
of any 150-174 MHz and 421-512 MHz band 25 kHz equipment
(including multi-mode equipment that can operate on a 25
kHz bandwidth)
- Beginning January 1, 2013, require public safety and
non-public safety licensees using channels in these bands
to deploy
technology
that achieves the equivalent of one voice path per
12.5 kHz (narrow band) of spectrum
- As of March 22, 2007, there is no deadline
for implementation of 6.25 kHz spacing. FCC is in discussions
with the major
users of this spectrum to determine dates but is currently
expected after 2018
Additional Information and Resources:
|
|
700 MHz Rebanding
|
Summary: As
part of the 800 MHz Rebanding solution, a part of the 700
MHz band was allocated to Public Safety while the remainder
of the band was being allocated to commercial wide-band data
services such as WiFi/WiMax and 3G. In order to mitigate
any potential problems with incompatible technologies such
as what happened with Nextel, rebanding was issued early
and only affect systems deployed before August 30, 2007.
Additional Information and Resources:
|
| |
|
|
