CELL-SITE INTERFERENCE WORRIES POLICE, FIRE OFFICIALS

Police agencies fear the worst will happen. Twice recently in Tigard, police officers faced armed suspects and were unable to radio for assistance. In Phoenix, Ariz., police and fire radios didn't work properly for three-quarters of a mile around one Nextel cell tower.

"The potential for a really catastrophic result exists," Tigard police Capt. Gary Schrader said. "If an officer was shot and he called for help and couldn't get medical assistance, it could result in the death of an officer needlessly."

Many of the problems reported here and nationwide can be traced to cell sites, which include cell phone towers and antennae owned by Nextel. Its Oregon manager Chris Panel said bluntly: "In the long term, this is going to be an issue that will get worse."

Officials monitoring the problem on a national level do not yet have a clear sense of the scope of the radio interference. The conditions creating the problem can change depending on the location and frequency of a cell site and whether a fire truck or police car uses its radio as it drives nearby.

A good example is outlined in a report for the Federal Communications Commission prepared by the Washington County dispatch system. The county's transmitting tower sits high atop Portland's Council Crest. Four miles away is a fire station that would get garbled signals because of a Nextel site just down the street. Portable radios inside the station actually worked better with its garage door closed because it helped block the Nextel signals.

The report, prepared by Joe Kuran, technical systems manager for the dispatch system, concludes that "as Nextel adds sites to improve their coverage . . . public safety deteriorates."

The insatiable consumer demand for wireless products has created a problem unheard of a decade ago. In 1996, Nextel operated just fewer than 1,000 cell sites across the nation. Today the Reston, Va.-based company with annual revenues exceeding $3.3 billion operates 12,500 sites and has 6.2 million customers. The company came to Oregon in March 1997 and has about 80 cell sites in the Portland area.

Some agencies have been able to pinpoint cell site locations as the culprit. In King County, Wash., authorities discovered that a cell site at a Seattle intersection was the problem. Michigan State Police were able to ferret out one specific frequency of a cellular company on the 800 bandwidth that was creating their dead zones.

But of the roughly 30 responses to a survey last fall by the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials, most agencies simply listed "Nextel" or "cellular sites" as an interference source. Most of the agencies also reported that their problem remains unsolved.

Nextel's vice president of government affairs Lawrence Krevor said he doesn't think it is a widespread problem. "But when it happens," he said, "it is a very important problem. We give it a high priority."

And like the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials' survey showed, the interference can theoretically come from different wireless providers.

The Federal Communications Commission began allocating 800 megahertz frequencies in the 1970s. As demand increased over the years, companies such as Nextel were able to buy frequencies near ones reserved for public safety agencies. Nextel and other wireless companies are breaking no rules three decades later.

"The real culprit isn't Nextel," said Nancy Jesuale, Portland's director of communications and networking. "The FCC is the culprit."

The FCC's deputy chief of the wireless communications bureau Kathleen Ham said her agency is all too often the scapegoat.

"Back in the '70s, the then-commission thought it was allocating in the best way for the uses of that day," she said. "We learned something from this, and we are trying to ensure that it does not happen in other instances."

Last year, the FCC brought together commercial providers and public safety officials to discuss the problem. The group, which included representatives of Nextel and the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials, released a report in December that suggests how both sides can work together to minimize interference.

Some of the suggestions for private providers include raising the height of cell tower antennas or reprogramming the frequency so it does not clash with police or fire, Nextel's Krevor said. Remedies for public agencies include buying filtering devices or locating a public transmitter by a Nextel or other commercial cell site. Dual sites side by side prevent one signal from overriding another, he said.

But upgrades and equipment can cost millions of dollars, and most public agencies do not have those financial resources, said RoxAnn Brown, director of Washington County Consolidated Communications Agency.

Nextel officials say they will continue to try to resolve interference problems. However, the company has purchased the access rights to its 800 megahertz frequencies and intends to use them.

"As the public requires more and more wireless, it will require us to utilize all the frequencies we have paid for," Nextel's Panel said.

You can reach Emily Tsao at 503-294-5968 or by e-mail at emilytsao@news.oregonian.com.