T Band Licensees days are numbered

[W4UVV]

In case you missed the news...a current law passed earlier this year by Congress requires all current FCC licensees in the 470-512 mhz. (T Band) range to relocate to other vhf/uhf land mobile frequencies including 700 mhz. The estimated required NLT change date will probably be sometime within the next 5 to 10 years. The FCC has not yet set a specific NLT change date. It could be earlier but unlikely later.

Why end T Band? Because Congress wants those frequencies to auction publicly for additional revenue.

No new licenses are being issued in the 470-512 mhz. range. Current licensees are exempt from the 13 Jan 2013 FCC mandated change to "narrow band" 12 khz..


Expect some current T Band licensees to go MOTOTRBO or NXDN when they do change. It's a growing trend.

[KB1UAM]

That's old news. my city just switched to MOTOTRBO, thankfully they are in the 450-460 range. the police just switched over to uhf digital in the 482mhz and also the fire department just got granted another uhf frequency in the 471 range.

[mmckenna]

I'd really be surprised to see if this happens. There are some large agencies on T band that are going to contest this.
UHF T-Band was picked as an easy target. The issue I see is that UHF is going to require bigger antennas than the wireless carries are going to want to use for portable devices. I'm not sure that anyone in congress thought to check if there was any demand for this spectrum. With the coming of "White Space" systems, the need for more spectrum in this area seems dubious at best.
Congress has been known to make silly decisions like this. There have been auctions that have happened recently that haven't resulted in much interest. There is a lot of spectrum available out there, and newer technologies are allowing smaller slices of spectrum to be used.
I give it 5 years before this is shot down.