TETRA Waiver Request Raises Interference Concerns, Commenters Say
APCO, Motorola, TIA and others asked the FCC to reject a waiver request by the TETRA Association, which would allow Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) technology to be used in the U.S. The association in November asked for a waiver of Parts 2 and 90 of FCC rules, saying manufacturers hope to produce the TETRA device for use in the U.S. on several frequency bands. They include 450-470 MHz, 806-849 MHz and 851-894 MHz.
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The technology has not been available in the U.S., but been “widely used around the world for over a decade,” the association said. “The Association has made a technical showing demonstrating that the requested waiver of the Part 90 rules will not cause harmful interference to other users.” TETRA “offers adjacent channel protection that certainly is no worse than, and often better than, other narrowband systems” now operating in the land mobile radio (LMR) bands, it said.
“TETRA is not compliant with the Project 25 standards that provide essential interoperability across digital radio equipment used by public safety agencies throughout the nation,” APCO said. “Any proposed TETRA deployment for public safety use in this country would create serious interoperability problems.” APCO said the use of TETRA shouldn’t be permitted absent “substantial evidence, including detailed and thoroughly vetted technical analysis with appropriate field testing” that guarantee its use won’t cause harmful interference for public safety or other communications.
The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council said it has a long history of supporting the introduction of new technologies, but they can’t cause interference for public safety systems. “Given the nature of public safety communications, any interference could have drastic and life threatening consequences,” NPSTC said. “The waivers requested by the TETRA Association would allow equipment to be introduced that exceeds the current Commission rules designed to minimize adjacent channel interference. The short time made available to review the petition has not provided the opportunity to fully analyze the potential increase in interference that could result from a grant of the waivers as requested.”
Motorola said the FCC should not grant the requested waiver, but should instead open a rulemaking proceeding, “which would allow full consideration of the requested changes and development of a detailed technical record.” Motorola manufactures and distributes TETRA systems outside the U.S., the company said. “As such, the company endorses the quality of the technology and its use in appropriate environments. … Nonetheless, it is inappropriate for the Commission to waive rules related to the protection of existing services and users without a thorough evaluation and understanding of the potential impact of doing so.”
TIA also seeks a rulemaking to evaluate the waiver request, as did the Land Mobile Communications Council. “The TETRA Waiver Request should not be granted as it is overly broad and is best suited to be evaluated in a rulemaking procedure,” TIA said. “Further, it fails to establish a need for a waiver or how it may serve the public interest.” LMCC said: “Given the complexity of these technologies and the time limitations of this Public Notice, LMCC is not able to determine the extent of interference increase which can be potentially caused by the Commission’s approval of this broad waiver request.”