RSSIn an ex parte filing, the Land Mobile Communications Council (LMCC) again asked the FCC not to release 800 MHz expansion band (EB) and guard band (GB) spectrum in additional National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee (NPSPAC) regions where rebanding was completed pending the outcome of the petition for rulemaking that the LMCC filed in March 2014.
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Recently, the 800 MHz Transition Administrator announced that rebanding is completed in 14 regions, which include “major urban areas where 800 MHz capacity is unavailable to incumbent licensees who have a requirement to expand system capacity.”
“Allowing existing licensees to have a brief licensing window of opportunity enabling them to further invest in their constructed and operational public safety, business/industrial/land transportation and SMR systems that are known to be serving critical communications purposes outweigh any benefits that might be achieved opening the spectrum up to new entrants,” LMCC President Gregory Kunkle said. “We must ensure that these incumbent systems have access to spectrum resources they need to accommodate pent-up system capacity requirements.”
In the petition, the LMCC requested that the FCC provide incumbent 800 MHz licensees a six-month opportunity to apply for EB/GB frequencies before making them available to new applicants.
The FCC began the 800 MHz band reconfiguration process to address an increasing problem with harmful interference caused to public safety and other Part 90 communications systems by commercial wireless systems. The reconfiguration established an EG and a GB to separate 800 MHz non-cellular systems from the spectrum used in Sprint’s commercial wireless operations. The bands offer opportunities for public safety and critical infrastructure industries (CII) to add needed capacity to their systems.
PCIA, an LMCC member, opposes withholding EB/GB spectrum pending the outcome of the LMCC petition for rulemaking.
In January, the FCC denied a request from the LMCC to postpone the pre-coordination and application filing deadlines for 800 MHz expansion band.
