NYC Granted Significant Narrowbanding Waiver by FCC

[GTR8000]

Well, it looks like the FDNY VHF frequencies will be around for a while after all.

The FCC has granted the city a rather significant last minute waiver for numerous VHF and UHF frequencies used by FDNY, NYPD, DOC and DEP.


FDNY
- The VHF frequencies in the 153/154 MHz range were granted a two year waiver, with a new narrowbanding deadline of December 31, 2014.

- The UHF Subway frequencies (460.575 and 460.625) were granted an indefinite waiver, to run co-extensive with the general T-Band wavier the FCC issued in April 2012.

- All UHF MED channels were granted a two year wavier, with a December 31, 2014 narrowbanding deadline.


NYPD
- All non-T-Band UHF frequencies were granted an indefinite waiver, to run co-extensive with the general T-Band wavier the FCC issued in April 2012. These include all of the Tactical frequencies in the 460/465 MHz range, as well as three Parking Enforcement frequencies in the 453 MHz range.


DOC
- All VHF and non-T-Band UHF frequencies were granted a two year waiver, with a December 31, 2014 narrowbanding deadline.


DEC
- All non-T-Band UHF frequencies in the 451/453 MHz range were granted a four month wavier, with a May 1, 2013 narrowbanding deadline.


The full text of the waiver can be found here, in PDF format:

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-12-2078A1.pdf

 

[garys]

So much for the "Absolutely no waivers..." statement. If you have enough clout there are always exceptions to absolute rules.

 

[GTR8000]

The FCC never said "absolutely no waivers". They made it very clear that anyone applying for a waiver had to demonstrate very clearly what steps they've taken towards narrowbanding or moving off existing frequencies. There have been a number of waivers granted over the past 8 months, NYC is not the first or only.

 

[mlmummert]

So much for the "Absolutely no waivers..." statement. If you have enough clout there are always exceptions to absolute rules.

If there are absolutely no waivers then why is there a process for applying for waivers at all?


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[W2MR]

Back in the 60's the industry changed from 15 kHz to 5 kHz deviation with no problems. What changed?

 

[902]

Back in the 60's the industry changed from 15 kHz to 5 kHz deviation with no problems. What changed?

Well... this time
1) Industry lobbied the FCC to not allow a simple reduction in deviation from 5 kHz to 2.5 kHz, along with a bench changeout in IF filtering and adjusting audio gain level. There was too much revenue potential at stake to leave the old stuff intact, and there is no reason why all those Micor and MASTR-II base stations (once the casting issue in the receiver is fixed) couldn't go chugging along indefinitely.

2) there is no net gain in VHF frequencies. We still overlap from channel to channel by putting 11.25 kHz of occupied bandwidth and placing it into a 7.5 kHz channelspace.

3) an environment is created where dealerships can market digital systems, the most prevalent being the ones that public safety did not have a stake in creating.

4) nothing was done in terms of spectrum management. VHF is still unpaired. Licenses are still vastly overpowered and areas of operation are astronomical considering jurisdictional boundaries. Spectrum hogs were not compelled to "right size." In fact, the new digital modes I mentioned above consume more of the channel than the analog systems they replace if they are implemented with AVL and send a keep-alive pulse every couple of seconds. Oh, and some knuckleheads are trying to sell VHF trunked systems.

Think of it as an artificial economic stimulus, or maybe a self-destruct mechanism that will drive everyone to LTE (sorry, my personal hangup).

SELL! SELL! SELL!

As for waivers, anyone can ask for a waiver of any rule at any time if they fit the criteria and it's in the public interest. Convincing the FCC that the criteria is met is another story. Waivers are typically reviewed by numbers of lawyers in DC, so it takes a while. These (believe it or not) were fast tracked.

 

[kc2kvz]

RE Waivers

Add to above...there are a ton more radios and users now than in the '60s.