Plan To Clear The Air For Police Radios Hits Snag
Public-safety agencies may have to wait a while longer before the FCC resolves problems involving cell phone interference with dozens of police and fire radio systems.
The FCC has a new proposal from Motorola and other companies in the telecommunications industry to consider.
Motorola and its supporters introduced a plan in May that relies on a device to filter out Nextel Communication signals as public-safety agencies receive transmissions.
Nextel had introduced a proposal last December, and the FCC appeared as if it were favoring its plan, which was also backed by a coalition of public-safety agencies.
The Nextel plan involves a swap of airwaves that would help create a public-safety agency block of spectrum free of interference.
Motorola’s alternative plan calls for public-safety agencies to get the device when they upgrade to new radios or retrofit current equipment.
The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials was critical of the Motorola plan, calling it “reactive” to interference events and questioning how public-safety agencies would pay for the technology.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from Wireless Newsfactor (06/16/03); Davidson, Paul.