FCC released proposal Thurs. on whether competitive frequency coo...
FCC released proposal Thurs. on whether competitive frequency coordination should be allowed for public safety frequencies below 512 MHz. Assn. of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) petitioned Commission for change last year, saying that opening former service-specific channels to competitive…
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coordination would streamline process, introduce competition, reduce costs for applicants. American Assn. of State Highway Transportation Officials, International Assn. of Fire Chiefs/International Municipal Signal Assn. and Forestry Conservation Communications Assn. opposed APCO petition. Each group argued other coordinators didn’t understand specific needs of their frequency users. Commission had left open possibility of competitive frequency coordination for public safety in its 1997 refarming order, in which it consolidated 20 private land mobile radio services below 512 MHz into 2 pools. FCC proposal examined 3 approaches: (1) Granting APCO request and opening all public safety pool frequencies below 512 MHz to competitive frequency coordination. (2) Introducing competitive coordination in limited way by adopting contour overlap approach similar to that of previous refarming order. All public safety pool frequencies could be coordinated by any public safety pool frequency coordinator, unless they had study showing that proposed station could cause interference to incumbent. In that case, consent of service-specific coordinator would be required. (3) Retaining exclusive frequency coordination procedures. FCC said that before public safety pool was created, former local govt. radio service frequencies had been used regularly by all eligible public safety entities for both emergency and nonemergency communications. “It has been our experience that competitive coordination for the former local government radio service frequencies has been successful,” proposal said. FCC said there were “potential differences” between public safety operations on frequencies assigned to former local govt. radio service and those on frequencies that now might be coordinated by only single entity. Proposal sought comment on what measures would address allegations that some public safety coordinators were “warehousing” spectrum, practice on which FCC said it didn’t have substantiated evidence. Proposal also requested comments on what steps could address those concerns “while not impairing the quality of frequency recommendations in the public safety pool.” FCC said it would accept comments on coordination alternatives other than 3 in proposal.