800 MEGAHERTZ TRAFFIC JAMS BLANK OUT EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

Closer to home, a Tigard fire engine was bombarded with interference as it left the station and was unable to receive information. Twice, Tigard police have faced armed suspects and were unable to radio for assistance.

"The potential for a really catastrophic result exists," Tigard Police Captain 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 antennas, owned by Nextel. Its Oregon manager, Chris Panel, says, "In the long-term, this is going to be an issue that will get worse."

Officials monitoring this problem on a national level do not yet have a clear sense of the scope of the interference.

"We know there is a problem," said Rick Murphy of the Public Safety Wireless Network, a partnership of the Department of Treasury and the Department of Justice. "But it is vague in solution and how widespread."

Both wireless companies and public safety agencies use frequencies in the 800 megahertz bandwidth. As a police cruiser is rolling to a call, it can pass through several wireless cell sites that use a variety of frequencies. Depending on the frequencies, the wireless signal can drown out the police signal.

A good example is outlined in a report for the Federal Communications Commission prepared by the Washington County dispatch system. The county transmitting tower sits atop Council Crest in Portland. Four miles away is a fire station that gets garbled signals because of a Nextel site just down the street. Portable radios inside the station actually work better when the station garage door is closed because its helps to 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."

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

Some agencies have been able to pinpoint exact 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 problems remain unsolved.

Nextel's vice president of government affairs, Lawrence Krevor, said of the interference that "I don't think this is a massive problem, but when it happens, it is a very important problem. We give it a high priority."

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

Similar frequencies assigned 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.

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

Kathleen Ham, deputy chief of the FCC's wireless communications bureau, said that the 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 included representatives of Nextel and the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials and printed 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 the cell tower antenna 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 adjacent to a Nextel or other commercial cell site. Dual sites side-by-side prevent one signal from overriding another, Krevor said.

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

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 fully 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," Panel said.

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