WASHINGTON-A petition by three trade associations representing railroads, utilities and the petroleum industry is being criticized soundly by other frequency coordinators, which claim the request for a separate “public service pool” would destroy refarming goals.
The petition, filed Aug. 14, asked the Federal Communications Commission to establish a new radio service pool in the private land mobile bands below 800 MHz.
Mark Crosby, president of the Industrial Telecommunications Association, said a variety of industries could be included in a public service pool. When all of these industries are included, “What you end up with is the industrial business pool,” Crosby said.
Alan Tilles, attorney for the Personal Communications Industry Association, another frequency coordinator, said the parties filing the petition-the Critical Infrastructure Industries, an alliance of UTC; The Telecommunications Association; the American Petroleum Institute; and the Association of American Railroads-have not cooperated in a PCIA-led process to develop industrial business pool frequency coordination standards.
“All of the coordinators are trying to work through these rules but there are currently other people [who] are using this transition process to further their own means … It would be more appropriate for UTC and API to participate in the land mobile task force than to go crying to the FCC every time they disagree with a coordination,” Tilles said.
The public service pool “would protect vital public-safety-related services from interference and encroachment by new industrial and commercial communications systems. Such protection is absolutely critical in the current environment of spectrum scarcity and congestion,” the alliance said in its petition. “This is a life-and-death issue. If an emergency communication can’t get through because of interference from a limousine dispatcher, lives and property are at risk,” said William R. Moroney, president and CEO of UTC.
The alliance also said there are a “growing number of dangerous situations caused by sharing frequencies,” but an FCC official was only aware of two. Indeed, one of the situations cited in the petition since has been resolved by the private radio operator vacating the frequency.
Ironically, the Critical Infrastructure Industries proposal mirrors one filed by PCIA in 1993. “These people are coming back to what PCIA proposed on May 23, 1993, and it is a shame they have to propose this now,” Tilles said.
The FCC is expected to consider the proposal but will probably not revamp the refarming system.
