10 years is really not much time.
If my memory serves me, narrowbanding was about a ten year notice window.
Look at how many users have still not narrowbanded. Narrowbanding is a simple
project compared to what has been proposed.
This proposal is much more significant in many ways as to the impact of those
residing in 470-512.
As proposed it will wipe out hundreds of systems and tens of thousands of subcribers.
There are so many variables and so little time.
This is a BIG pill to swallow. IMHO this is real ugly.
I wonder how NYC DOITT feels about this? Anyone?
Narrowbanding had more leadtime and, for many of the simpler systems, it's just a matter of reprogramming. The whole process took maybe 20 years, but the date was solidified around 2003. The original date was set further into the future, but was shortened.
For meaningful solution, the FCC could have made some changes to VHF the way they intended to with "refarming" circa 1996, but they took the easy way out, and I don't think there is much benefit to narrowbanding VHF, except for the manufacturers who get to finally kill off those unkillable radios. I can only imagine how many Motracs are still working fine day after day. Of course, that represents a loss for the manufacturers because not only are they not buying anything new, they aren't paying a recurring charge to anyone for their connectivity.
I think the braintrust involved in this has a skewed sense of amortization. That's the hazard of being from a big, well-funded agency, you don't see or maybe don't care about the smaller venues that live in your shadow. And, that mindset might even apply to the other agencies within the same city (read: the "they're on their own" mentality).
Most of the systems I know of have been implemented as definitive solutions, with the first generation expected to perform for at least 15 years. It's difficult to find a product now that would last that long without being sunset. Moving to the "smartphone" form factor would cycle subscriber units out probably every 18 months (if not sooner), not to mention how much it would cost to self-maintain however many eNB and infrastructure in physical maintenance and firmware upgrades.
So, obvious victory for the big guys who wanted the technology all along (and it's not that much spectrum... it'll be gobbled right away up by poor throughput management), but virtually most of NJ, not so much.
I don't know. I'm as shocked and disappointed as the next guy, and I certainly don't think the smaller communities relying on T-Band will ever be made whole, especially if they migrated off deficient VHF systems and wanted to go to 800 in the first place, but found whatever frequencies were taken by the big boys before they even had a chance to apply. That's how/why T-Band became widely available. It's relief spectrum. There aren't enough frequencies that can be pulled from bodily orifices to make it happen. Judging by past performance (the collossal political Charlie Foxtrot money-grab known as 800 MHz rebanding), $7B isn't enough cash, either.
