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Cellular phones interfering with emergency frequencies

Christian Davenport, Washington Post
Monday, August 18, 2003


The explosive growth of the mobile phone industry has crowded and tangled the
nation's airwaves to such an extent that wireless company signals are
increasingly interfering with emergency radio frequencies used by police and
firefighters, public
safety agencies said.

Emergency departments nationwide report unsettling stories of officers who
cannot call for backup, dispatchers who cannot relay suspect descriptions and
firefighters who cannot request ambulances because of radio "dead spots"
believed to be caused by wireless phone interference.

"Just by the grace of God or good luck, we've been able to avoid a major
problem," said Gary Manougian, a police officer in Portland, Ore. "But I don't
think we can go on like this indefinitely."

The Federal Communications Commission has vowed to find a solution, even if it
has to rorganize a large swath of the radio spectrum -- a gigantic and
controversial task, potentially costing hundreds of millions of dollars and
taking years to complete,
industry officials said.

FCC Chairman Michael Powell said in a speech last week that "it is one of my
top priorities . . . to ensure that public safety has the reliable spectrum
resources it needs to do its lifesaving work." He warned that solving the
problem "may be one of the
most challenging spectrum policy proceedings" to come before the agency.

No death or catastrophe has been attributed to such communication problems,
said Robert Gurss, director of legal and government relations for the
Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International, a nonprofit
organization
representing emergency communication officials.

But dozens of agencies large and small -- from New York City to Androscoggin
County, Maine -- have registered complaints, and one public safety coalition
estimates interference is a problem in at least 27 states.

The issue has its roots in the 1970s, when the FCC assigned channels in the
800-megahertz band to public safety departments. In the 1980s, wireless
companies began to acquire, with federal approval, space adjacent to the
emergency radio frequencies. Soon, the wireless phone industry started to grow.

Last year, there were an estimated 140 million wireless phone users, the
Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association said.

An increasing number of public safety agencies moved into the 800 megahertz
band, and as the agencies and wireless companies occupied more spectrum space,
airwave conflicts intensified.

Communication officials say interference is caused by many factors. A common
problem arises when a police officer, for example, is close to a wireless phone
company transmitter but far from one of the towers that carries the signals for
emergency radios. In that situation, the wireless phone tower overpowers the
officer's radio, rendering it useless, the officials said.

The FCC is considering reshuffling channels in the 800-megahertz band. The idea
is to separate the wireless companies from the public safety departments, so
they inhabit different ends of the band.

None of the companies is doing anything wrong, FCC officials said. As
organized, the spectrum, which is a limited resource, simply cannot accommodate
everyone.

There are several wireless companies operating in the 800-megahertz band,
including Verizon, AT&T Wireless and Cingular, according to the FCC. Most of the
complaints the agency has received have been caused by Nextel Communications
Inc. because many of its band frequencies abut those of emergency radios.

Mindful of the mounting pressure, Nextel has teamed with a broad coalition of
partners -- including the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials
International and the International Association of Chiefs of Police - - to
develop a proposal to reorganize the spectrum, which, if approved, would give
Nextel some prime real estate in the airwaves.

Nextel has offered to pay $850 million for costs of reshuffling the channels.
The company's proposal is one of many the FCC is reviewing.

Many communication experts say a complete reorganization of the spectrum is
unnecessary, too expensive and too time-consuming. Meanwhile, public safety
officials say the situation is urgent.

"If we don't fix this now, it's only going to get worse," Gurss said.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/08/18/MN248083.DTL



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