Railroads See Unique Challenges From Changes to 900 MHz Band
The Association of American Railroads told the FCC it faces unique challenges if the agency reconfigures the 900 MHz band to allow for broadband (see 1907030028). AAR’s replies were posted Friday in docket 17-200. Railroads rely on a nationwide ribbon…
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license created in 2001 from more than 300 private land mobile radio call signs for communications, AAR said. “Member railroads rely on the ribbon license’s six noncontiguous, paired frequencies for Train Control/Central Traffic Control operations, which enable approximately 9,500 transceivers to wirelessly control wayside track switches and signals.” Three of the license’s paired frequencies are within the proposed broadband swath and the remaining three paired frequencies are less than 1 MHz away, the group said. “Relocating AAR’s frequencies county-by-county would administratively and operationally burden AAR, which could be required to: (1) hire additional staff to track its new patchwork network of frequencies across hundreds or thousands of counties; and (2) reconfigure its network to accommodate different base stations operating on different frequencies in different counties, thereby creating potentially unsafe conditions for trackside switch and signal operations.”