Nextel Aims to Free Up Police Lines
RYAN FRANK and EMILY TSAO - The
Oregonian
08/19/2001
Portland
Oregonian
SUNRISE
C01
(Copyright (c) The Oregonian 2001)
Summary: The company will seek federal
approval of a plan to keep cell phone towers from disrupting police and fire
radio calls
Nextel Communications will ask federal
regulators in October to approve a plan for eliminating interference in
police and fire communications caused by the company's wireless phone
transmissions.
Public safety managers in 29 states,
including Oregon and a new case in Nevada, have reported at least one confirmed
or suspected instance of cellular phone towers interfering with their
radios or in- car computers. Washington County and Portland officials have led
efforts nationwide in researching the problem that leaves emergency personnel at
risk when they cannot communicate with one another.
Nextel of Reston, Va., is the source of interference in 21 states because its wireless phone service uses 800 MHz radio frequencies that are intertwined with or adjacent to those
used by police radios, public safety officials said. The company and public
safety agencies are operating within guidelines set by the Federal
Communications Commission.
Nextel founder and vice chairman Morgan
O'Brien said in a speech at a conference for public safety managers this month
that he wanted to separate the more than 250 intertwined frequencies into
separate blocks. The change would keep the more powerful cellular phone
transmissions farther in the radio spectrum from the weaker public safety
broadcasts.
Public safety agencies across the country
and Nextel have experimented with short-term fixes in several cities, but both
sides want a more permanent solution.
Nextel officials, who declined to give
further details of the plan, have not issued a timeline to implement the
proposal. But a committee organized by an industry group to study the interference problem has separately established a two-year goal.
Committee chairwoman RoxAnn Brown, director
of Washington County's 9-1-1 center, said the panel met for the first time Aug.
5 at the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International's
annual conference in Salt Lake City. The committee has not drafted a proposal to
solve the problem, choosing instead to further document interference
reports, Brown said.
O'Brien's proposal would cost millions of
dollars and affect thousands of public safety agencies, as well as commercial
and industrial operations, said Glen Nash, president of the public safety
association.
It is unclear who would pay for the change.
Public safety officials have backed away from their initial requests that the
federal government or Nextel pay the entire cost of any fix.
"Ideally, we wouldn't pay anything, but
there is a big difference between ideal and realistic," said Nash, who added
that some departments may have to raise taxes to pay for the changes. Nextel
officials have said the company is willing to pay a share of the cost.
The company would benefit from the
reorganized 800 MHz band because it would give the nation's fifth-largest
wireless provider a continuous block of frequencies, Nash said.
An FCC spokeswoman in the Wireless
Telecommunications Bureau said the agency is aware of Nextel's proposal but
declined to comment on it. The federal agency has urged public safety agencies
and wireless companies to work together to resolve the issue.
U.S. Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., said recently
that he planned to write a letter to the FCC to request that the agency take a
leadership role in stopping interference.
"I don't want to come back to this months
or years from now and still have the FCC and Nextel and others saying it's those
other folks who are supposed to solve the problem," Wu said.
Public safety officials said they are
intrigued by O'Brien's plan and eager to hear the details. "It's an interesting
concept," Nash said. "Much work to follow."
Joe Hanna, former public safety association
president and Nextel consultant, said a plan to separate Nextel and public
safety frequencies would be a "Herculean task."
But it might work if "it's worth the pain
to make the move," he said. "Anything else that we do beyond that is going to be
putting Band-Aids or just moving the problem."
You can reach Ryan Frank at 503-294-5955 or
by e-mail at ryanfrank@news.oregonian.com. You can reach Emily Tsao at 503-294-
5968 or by e-mail at emilytsao@news.oregonian.com.