The FCC sent out 32,000 letters last month to public...
The FCC sent out 32,000 letters last month to public safety licensees who still need to make the transition from wide to narrowband channels for their public safety radios, and has been inundated with phone calls and emails since, said…
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Brian Marenco, an engineer in the Public Safety Bureau, at a National Public Safety Telecom Council meeting Monday. Meanwhile, many letters are coming back as undeliverable. FCC rules require all public safety and industrial/business land mobile radio systems in the 150-174 MHz and 421-512 MHz bands to migrate from 25 kHz channel bandwidth to 12.5 kHz or narrower technology by Jan. 1, 2013 (CD Jan 27 p3). “A lot of people really do want to comply but they need the tools and they need the resources,” Marenco said. But things are moving slowly, he warned. Since the letter went out April 15, the FCC has recorded 2,100 changes to licenses to allow for narrowbanding and, since April 1, 320 calls signs have been cancelled, he said. “We want to work and help people comply,” he said. “We have a long way to go. … We're now 62 percent noncompliant, but when we started we were closer to 66 percent noncompliant, so it has been moving.” Marenco said the FCC likely wouldn’t have time to move the deadline even if it wanted to at this point. The FCC’s message on the deadline has been clear, Marenco said. “It’s here,” he said. “The deadline’s not moving.”