Carriers Ask FCC to Stick with 2008 Analog Cutoff Deadline
The FCC’s analog cellular service requirement should end in Feb. 2008 as promised, and postponing the deadline would hurt cellular operators that have made network plans and investments based on it, a group of cellular carriers told the FCC. Alarm companies and their associations countered that analog links used by airports, hospitals and critical govt. operations are at risk unless the deadline is extended.
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ADT last year asked for a 2-year extension of the analog sunset date (CD Oct 5 p2) saying adequate digital equipment has been slow to arrive. The Commission imposed the sunset date in 2002, when it found carriers should eventually be released from a longstanding requirement that they continue to provide service to subscribers and roamers using handsets conforming to the Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) standard.
In response to a request for comments, Verizon Wireless, Alltel and Dobson jointly asked the FCC to reject the alarm company arguments. A group of rural carriers said they would be hit particularly hard if the deadline is extended. Sources said FCC consideration of the issue appears to be on a fast track.
Cellular operators “should not be forced, unlike other wireless service providers with whom they compete, to effectively subsidize alarm service providers that have failed to plan properly,” said Verizon, Alltel and Dobson: “Alarm service providers should not, at the last minute, be given a free ride at the expense of cellular operators who are working diligently to bring the benefits of digital technology to wireless consumers.”
Commission precedent dictates sticking with the deadline, the carriers said. Extending the sunset also would cost cellular operators, they argued. “The costs associated with maintaining the analog requirement are significant and petitioners seek to impose those costs -- whatever they may be -- on the cellular industry solely for the benefit of the alarm industry.”
The rural carrier group, meanwhile, said small carriers face significant costs if the deadline is extended. “Rural carriers have been migrating their customers from analog to digital services,” the rural carriers said: “The cost of continuing to operate an analog network is significant and cannot be recovered through the minimal revenues generated by their few remaining analog customers.” It costs Mid-Tex Cellular $500,000 a year to keep its analog network working, the group said. For Chariton Valley Wireless, the $216,000 cost is about 10% of its operating expenses.
But the Alarm Industry Communications Committee said in a filing some 151,000 alarm systems in use in the U.S. would be affected by the cutoff. “For these customers, the termination of analog cellular service would result in a loss of protection from fire, crime and medical emergencies,” the group said. “Alarm signals would no longer reach the alarm service provider until it is able to replace the analog radio with a digital alarm unit.”
The group said it has identified at least 476 govt. or critical infrastructure facilities that rely on the analog signals, including hospitals, airports, public dams and facilities operated by both DoD and DHS. The alarm companies said scarcity of equipment remains an issue, with some 19,000 new digital alarm systems being installed each month. “The scarcity of digital replacement radios has been exacerbated by a significant demand by new alarm customers… “