Land mobile industry and public safety commenters opposed FCC eff...

technology, the FCC last Dec. set a Jan. 1, 2013, deadline for migration to 12.5 KHz technology. That technology achieves the narrowband equivalent for both public safety and industrial/business licensees using frequencies in the 150-174 MHz and 421-512 MHz bands. In the transition, the FCC said, after Jan. 1, 2011 it will accept applications for new operations using a bandwidth greater than 12.5 KHz only if equipment meets a new spectrum efficiency standard of one channel per 12.5 KHz of channel bandwidth (voice) or 4.8 kbps per 6.25 KHz (data). The agency also asked how to aid migration to 6.25 KHz operations and whether to impose a mandatory date. It also sought comments on transitional deadlines and requirements of a rule intended to foster movement to 6.25 KHz technology. That rule limits approval of radio equipment certification applications received on or after Jan. 1, 2005, to equipment capable of operating on 6.25 KHz channels or meeting a narrowband efficiency standard of one channel per 6.25 KHz (voice) or 4.8 kbps per 6.25 KHz (data). The national Public Safety Telecom Council (NPSTC), which opposed a mandatory date for transition to 6.25 KHz, said the transition rule on equipment certification is “counter to the interests of public safety communications.” Mandating a date would be “counterproductive to the Commission’s objective,” NPSTC said, claiming “interoperability capability would be undermined because significant challenges remain with regard to the 12.5 KHz transition, and there is no knowledge of when equipment for the public safety sector will be available.” NPSTC urged the FCC to set a date for migration to 6.25 KHz spectrum efficiency 5 years after an interoperability standard has been defined. Separately, the Land Mobile Communications Council (LMCC) urged the FCC to abandon efforts to require users to migrate to discrete 6.25 KHz channels. “Efforts to ‘create capacity’ based on miniaturizing channel bandwidths is counter to telecommunications trends which are moving to requirements for wider rather than narrowband bandwidths,” LMCC said: “Any efforts to promote efficiency in the Part 90 VHF (150-174 MHz) and UHF (421-512 MHz) bands should be through the adoption of technologies with the equivalent efficiency of one voice path per 6.25 KHz of bandwidth rather than equipment that physically operates on 6.25 KHz discrete channels.”