Local Governments See Interoperability Suffering Unless 800 MHz Deadlines Are Extended
The District of Columbia backed Fairfax County, Va., as it petitioned to have until July 29, 2010, to reband its 800 MHz channels. The completion deadline is June 26, 2008. Other area cities and counties are rallying behind Fairfax. The extension should apply to the entire national capital region (NCR), whose jurisdictions are “inseparable if the existing and necessary interoperability of NCR- jurisdiction public safety radio system is to be maintained,” D.C. said. “The past 20 years, these 14 national capital regional licensees have built one of the most advanced public safety radio systems in the United States, in terms of interoperability,” the city of Manassas, Va., said. “That interoperability will be interrupted unless the NCR licensees can coordinate the rebanding of these systems with due care and reasonable planning.”
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Without an extension, Manassas will have to sign a frequency reconfiguration agreement (FRA) containing an unachievable date, it said. “The only sensible course of action at this time would be to adjust the completion date for all NCR jurisdictions based on the best available information.”
Montgomery County, Md., endorsed the Fairfax petition, which seeks alteration of the preliminary master schedule for the NCR. “That schedule is necessarily imprecise and does not contain all of the detailed tasks required to safely and effectively reband the 800 MHz public safety radio systems in and around the NCR,” the county said.
In a May 24 petition, Fairfax County sought an expedited FCC decision. The 800 MHz Transition Administrator approved one of two FRAs it had to work out with Sprint Nextel and the second FRA is now under review, the county said. But approval depends on the county getting the program completion date waived, since to comply with its duty to coordinate with other NCR jurisdictions means extending Fairfax reconfiguration work past June 26, 2008, the county said. And without a waiver, the county will be denied compensation for costs incurred after June 26, 2008, it said.