ALEXANDRIA, Va.-As Federal Communications Commission reform moves forward and mobile-phone issues continue to dominate the agency’s wireless agenda, small dispatch radio operators say they face an escalating interference problem that may have wider implications for national spectrum policy as more and more entities are squeezed into a finite amount of spectrum.
“It’s a mess out there. I don’t think it is being looked at as a serious problem,” said Keller McCrary, president of Keller Communications Inc., a Dallas-based two-way radio dealer, at a leadership conference last week sponsored by the American Mobile Telecommunications Association. “This is a real big issue I’d like the FCC to look at.”
McCrary and others claim interference is being caused by licensed and unlicensed operations alike. For example, wireless devices used by surveyors and golfers have been identified as culprits. McCrary called for a separate slice of spectrum to be set aside for the convergence of computers and radio-frequency use. This might eventually come to pass, said Liz Sachs, AMTA general counsel, noting that the Land Mobile Communications Council has suggested such an arrangement as part of the Low-Power Pool proposal currently being considered by the FCC.
But the interference issue cuts both ways. Nextel Communications Inc., which dominates the dispatch radio industry, has been accused of causing interference to analog dispatch and public-safety communications at 800 MHz.
Mary Beth Richards, special counsel to FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell on structural reorganization, said the agency is trying to beef up its technical expertise through recruitment and training programs in light of the continuing loss of engineers in government and engineering schools to the private sector, where salaries are highly competitive.
Whether the addition of engineers at the FCC will help solve the interference problem is unclear.
Some suggest the interference problem goes deeper and that fixing it will require adequate congressional funding for FCC field offices and a commitment by the agency to make it a priority.
“It’s a problem that is going to get worse,” said Alan Shark, president of AMTA. “They [the FCC] really haven’t placed an emphasis on shared frequencies.”
Since spectrum auctions were authorized in 1993, a move that helped fuel the growth of the mobile-phone industry during the 1990s, the SMR industry-represented by Nextel and a shrinking number of other small SMR operators-have had to fight for attention at the FCC. With the FCC poised for realignment, that concern has been piqued. Tied to the interference problem-which is addressed at 800 MHz through a “best practices” guide-is a lack of spectrum, according to SMR operators.
“I’m assuming this is being worked out,” said Kathleen O’Brien-Ham, deputy chief of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. She said a one-size-fits-all approach to resolving SMR interference is probably not the answer. But she added, “We are prepared to do that if it doesn’t work out.”
As to who would handle interference complaints-formal, informal or suspected-got a bit murky when representatives from the wireless and enforcement bureaus appeared to pass the buck back and forth. The wireless bureau said interference was an enforcement bureau issue, but the enforcement bureau said “no,” it was a licensing (wireless bureau) issue.
It is not surprising the conflict exists. A call to Powell’s office showed there was no clear policy and that the two bureaus would handle individual cases. Powell’s senior legal adviser, Peter Tenhula, referred inquiries to the two bureau chiefs.
“The bureau chiefs in the first instances have worked out these types of conflicts and hopefully we don’t have to get involved,” said Tenhula.
The wireless bureau seemed to agree with this scenario. “Nine times out of 10 the good news is that these problems get resolved. The FCC is in a mediating role and the wireless bureau plays that role for the commission. But when there is a clear rule violation, we would refer to the enforcement bureau,” said Ham.
The enforcement bureau refused to make its chief, David Solomon, available, but an enforcement bureau official said in areas of interference, there is a policy developed to determine whether the wireless bureau will handle the matter.
In other news coming out of the AMTA conference, the wireless bureau’s public safety and private wireless division is beginning an audit this month of 450,000 private mobile radio services call signs. The audit is expected to take up to six months and will involve the division sending out more than 3,000 letters per day to the licensee of each call sign. Licensees will have 30 days to complete a response form that asks whether the call sign has been constructed or not. Licensees can also mark “other.”
The responses then will be posted to a database that will be available via the Internet. Those wishing to review the comments associated with the “other” response will have to order the file from the FCC’s contractor, said Mary Schulz, chief of the licensing branch of the private-wireless division. The audit will only cover PMRS licenses, Schulz stressed, noting the commercial wireless division is also considering, but has not commenced, a similar audit.
In addition, Ham announced the FCC has agreed to transfer the American Trucking Association’s frequency coordination certification to AMTA. AMTA announced at last year’s conference that it wished to take over ATA’s frequency coordination duties.
