MASTRTECH
Member
Lie #1: I haven’t had any interference problems, so I don’t have to move.
Truth: The FCC order is designed to “reshuffle the deck” to prevent interference from occurring, so many licensees nationwide will have to move. If you operate in the current NPSPAC band (866-869/821-824 MHz) will be required to move “down” 15 MHz, and every licensee in the first 150 channels of the General Category Pool (851-853.9875/806-808.9875 MHz) will move “up” to the “middle” bands (854.0125-861.9875/809.0125-816.9875 MHz) to clear the way for public safety licensees. Licensees in the “middle” bands can stay where they are. Please note that the rebanding plan for the Canadian and Mexican Border Regions has not yet been negotiated with the respective neighboring governments. Click here to find out more about the new 800 MHz band plan.
Lie #2: This won’t happen for years, so I can ignore it.
Truth: It is true that the mandatory relocation period in your region may not begin for some time. The Transition Administrator has now published a schedule, which will give you an estimate of when retuning will happen in your region. The start date is scheduled to be June 27, 2005. Even if your region will not start formal rebanding anytime soon, the time to start planning is now, because a successful system retune requires attention to detail, careful planning and crisp execution. Once you receive a rebanding notice from the Transition Administrator, you'll have only a brief period of time to negotiate (three month voluntary negotiations, three month mandatory negotiations). Many municipalities take that long just to hire outside consultants, so you'll want to be ready to go prior to receiving the notice. You have nothing to lose and much to gain by planning ahead. You should develop a detailed game plan before you take the field. Starting now, you can:
Conduct a system inventory
Update your radio and user lists
Assess your staff to decide whether you need outside contractors to help
Talk to your users, and prepare them for the change on the horizon
Identify and contract the vendors you will need, including attorneys, engineers, and project managers
Develop plans to limit disruption (such as reprogramming radios at shift changes)
Use this time wisely to build a successful foundation for your project. Click here to download a retuning checklist.
Lie #3: This process is going to bankrupt my business or municipality.
Truth: Your system relocation should not cost you a cent. The FCC requires that you be reimbursed for all of your reasonable expenses, including your internal personnel costs directly attributable to retuning and your legal and engineering fees. Further, you should not be required to put out any of these costs up front. The Commission's Sua Sponte Order and the TA's Handbook addresses some of these cost issues. A summary of that Order can be found here.
Lie #4: I don’t care what the feds say, I am not going to move.
Truth: If you are in the impacted group of licensees, you won’t have a choice. The Commission has established both voluntary and mandatory negotiation periods for affected licensees. All licensees are required to act in good faith during negotiation. If you refuse to cooperate in the process, you risk having your license revoked. Some may recommend that you to stand pat or ignore the Transition Administrator letters while others try to fight in court, but you will do so at your own peril.
Lie #5: I can’t be off-air for a second, so I need to construct a fully redundant system.
Truth: Hundreds of 800 MHz radio systems (including mission-critical public safety and utility systems) have been retuned without a fully redundant system or redundant subscriber units. You will probably need some additional components (such as extra repeaters or combiners to “bridge” the retune period), but Nextel will loan out this equipment during the retune. Thus, most licensees will not need a redundant system. However, the FCC Rules provide that if a redundant system is the only course to ensure no downtime for your operations, then you are entitled to have that redundant system.
Lie #6: My radios can’t be retuned, so they’ll all have to be replaced.
Truth: A few of the oldest radios will have to be replaced, but most radios can be recrystalized or reprogrammed to your new frequencies. If some of your radios must be replaced, you will receive replacements (usually professionally reconditioned units) or the money to replace them yourself. Motorola has recently created an 800 MHz information web site, which includes a listing of Motorola radios which must be replaced, and which may be reprogrammed. All Motorola radios operating on NPSPAC frequencies will, at a minimum, require new software. See Motorola's presentation on which radios will need replacing here.
Lie #7: This is all just a ploy for Nextel to steal my customers.
Truth: Nextel employees will never see your customer list, much less interact with them. If you are an SMR operator, you can coordinate the retuning process yourself and schedule your customers, and you select the technicians who interact with your customers. In fact, you can use this customer interaction as a sales opportunity to sell new radios, additional accessories, or even to move customers to your system in a different band.
Lie #8: I don’t want someone else’s techs sent from off of the street touching my equipment. Who knows what they’ll mess up?
Truth: No one will touch any of your equipment without your permission. You have the right to select the technicians who complete your retuning, and you can choose to use your own employees, outside contractors, or a combination of both. You will be reimbursed for all costs, and reimbursement will be at market rates, so contractors will want your business.
Lie #9: My system can’t be retuned. It’s just too complicated.
Truth: Nextel has successfully retuned some of the largest, most complicated radio systems in the country, including large, multi-agency county and regional public safety systems, regional SMR providers, and the country’s largest electric utilities (although this will be a first in moving NPSPAC frequencies down to the old General Category channels). While large systems add significant complexity, any system can be retuned. This is not to make it sound as if the process is easy. Rather, it is complicated for large systems, and cannot be haphazardly performed. Further, public safety agencies with interoperability agreements with neighboring jurisdictions will need to plan their retunes carefully to ensure no downtime. Thus, if you have a large, complex system, it is important that you have sound professional and technical advice.
Lie #10: I don’t need a lawyer for my retune; they’ll just suck up all of the money.
Truth: Public safety system operators will be signing off with their bosses on a plan to reconfigure mission-critical systems. If anything goes wrong, the buck stops with you. Why wouldn’t you want the assurance of experienced counsel who can review the deal terms and the agreements for you to avoid trouble down the road? And, your legal costs will be reimbursed, so it’s like free insurance. Further, there's no need for a public safety agency to go "out of pocket" for legal expenses and seek reimbursement later. Rather, Shulman Rogers will time our billings to the payment schedule that is negotiated with Nextel, and we will receive our fees when you reach a payment event. Further, the TA has now created a process that will enable you to get "Planning Funds" to do the initial work on your system. As to the amount of the legal fees, the Transition Authority will make sure that legal costs are reasonable to your transaction. The Shulman Rogers team of attorneys have represented the incumbent licensee in negotiating over 100 retuning agreements with Nextel. The agreements have ranged from the smallest 800 MHz system, to major licensees such as the City of Denver and United Airlines. While the Transition Administrator will be reviewing all retuning agreements, it is not their responsibility to ensure that you get the best deal, only that you receive what you're entitled to under the FCC's Order. Further, the TA has specifically stated that it is not a substitute for qualified representation. Experienced counsel can help guide you to find costs that you might not have considered, and ensure that those costs are fairly compensated.
Truth: The FCC order is designed to “reshuffle the deck” to prevent interference from occurring, so many licensees nationwide will have to move. If you operate in the current NPSPAC band (866-869/821-824 MHz) will be required to move “down” 15 MHz, and every licensee in the first 150 channels of the General Category Pool (851-853.9875/806-808.9875 MHz) will move “up” to the “middle” bands (854.0125-861.9875/809.0125-816.9875 MHz) to clear the way for public safety licensees. Licensees in the “middle” bands can stay where they are. Please note that the rebanding plan for the Canadian and Mexican Border Regions has not yet been negotiated with the respective neighboring governments. Click here to find out more about the new 800 MHz band plan.
Lie #2: This won’t happen for years, so I can ignore it.
Truth: It is true that the mandatory relocation period in your region may not begin for some time. The Transition Administrator has now published a schedule, which will give you an estimate of when retuning will happen in your region. The start date is scheduled to be June 27, 2005. Even if your region will not start formal rebanding anytime soon, the time to start planning is now, because a successful system retune requires attention to detail, careful planning and crisp execution. Once you receive a rebanding notice from the Transition Administrator, you'll have only a brief period of time to negotiate (three month voluntary negotiations, three month mandatory negotiations). Many municipalities take that long just to hire outside consultants, so you'll want to be ready to go prior to receiving the notice. You have nothing to lose and much to gain by planning ahead. You should develop a detailed game plan before you take the field. Starting now, you can:
Conduct a system inventory
Update your radio and user lists
Assess your staff to decide whether you need outside contractors to help
Talk to your users, and prepare them for the change on the horizon
Identify and contract the vendors you will need, including attorneys, engineers, and project managers
Develop plans to limit disruption (such as reprogramming radios at shift changes)
Use this time wisely to build a successful foundation for your project. Click here to download a retuning checklist.
Lie #3: This process is going to bankrupt my business or municipality.
Truth: Your system relocation should not cost you a cent. The FCC requires that you be reimbursed for all of your reasonable expenses, including your internal personnel costs directly attributable to retuning and your legal and engineering fees. Further, you should not be required to put out any of these costs up front. The Commission's Sua Sponte Order and the TA's Handbook addresses some of these cost issues. A summary of that Order can be found here.
Lie #4: I don’t care what the feds say, I am not going to move.
Truth: If you are in the impacted group of licensees, you won’t have a choice. The Commission has established both voluntary and mandatory negotiation periods for affected licensees. All licensees are required to act in good faith during negotiation. If you refuse to cooperate in the process, you risk having your license revoked. Some may recommend that you to stand pat or ignore the Transition Administrator letters while others try to fight in court, but you will do so at your own peril.
Lie #5: I can’t be off-air for a second, so I need to construct a fully redundant system.
Truth: Hundreds of 800 MHz radio systems (including mission-critical public safety and utility systems) have been retuned without a fully redundant system or redundant subscriber units. You will probably need some additional components (such as extra repeaters or combiners to “bridge” the retune period), but Nextel will loan out this equipment during the retune. Thus, most licensees will not need a redundant system. However, the FCC Rules provide that if a redundant system is the only course to ensure no downtime for your operations, then you are entitled to have that redundant system.
Lie #6: My radios can’t be retuned, so they’ll all have to be replaced.
Truth: A few of the oldest radios will have to be replaced, but most radios can be recrystalized or reprogrammed to your new frequencies. If some of your radios must be replaced, you will receive replacements (usually professionally reconditioned units) or the money to replace them yourself. Motorola has recently created an 800 MHz information web site, which includes a listing of Motorola radios which must be replaced, and which may be reprogrammed. All Motorola radios operating on NPSPAC frequencies will, at a minimum, require new software. See Motorola's presentation on which radios will need replacing here.
Lie #7: This is all just a ploy for Nextel to steal my customers.
Truth: Nextel employees will never see your customer list, much less interact with them. If you are an SMR operator, you can coordinate the retuning process yourself and schedule your customers, and you select the technicians who interact with your customers. In fact, you can use this customer interaction as a sales opportunity to sell new radios, additional accessories, or even to move customers to your system in a different band.
Lie #8: I don’t want someone else’s techs sent from off of the street touching my equipment. Who knows what they’ll mess up?
Truth: No one will touch any of your equipment without your permission. You have the right to select the technicians who complete your retuning, and you can choose to use your own employees, outside contractors, or a combination of both. You will be reimbursed for all costs, and reimbursement will be at market rates, so contractors will want your business.
Lie #9: My system can’t be retuned. It’s just too complicated.
Truth: Nextel has successfully retuned some of the largest, most complicated radio systems in the country, including large, multi-agency county and regional public safety systems, regional SMR providers, and the country’s largest electric utilities (although this will be a first in moving NPSPAC frequencies down to the old General Category channels). While large systems add significant complexity, any system can be retuned. This is not to make it sound as if the process is easy. Rather, it is complicated for large systems, and cannot be haphazardly performed. Further, public safety agencies with interoperability agreements with neighboring jurisdictions will need to plan their retunes carefully to ensure no downtime. Thus, if you have a large, complex system, it is important that you have sound professional and technical advice.
Lie #10: I don’t need a lawyer for my retune; they’ll just suck up all of the money.
Truth: Public safety system operators will be signing off with their bosses on a plan to reconfigure mission-critical systems. If anything goes wrong, the buck stops with you. Why wouldn’t you want the assurance of experienced counsel who can review the deal terms and the agreements for you to avoid trouble down the road? And, your legal costs will be reimbursed, so it’s like free insurance. Further, there's no need for a public safety agency to go "out of pocket" for legal expenses and seek reimbursement later. Rather, Shulman Rogers will time our billings to the payment schedule that is negotiated with Nextel, and we will receive our fees when you reach a payment event. Further, the TA has now created a process that will enable you to get "Planning Funds" to do the initial work on your system. As to the amount of the legal fees, the Transition Authority will make sure that legal costs are reasonable to your transaction. The Shulman Rogers team of attorneys have represented the incumbent licensee in negotiating over 100 retuning agreements with Nextel. The agreements have ranged from the smallest 800 MHz system, to major licensees such as the City of Denver and United Airlines. While the Transition Administrator will be reviewing all retuning agreements, it is not their responsibility to ensure that you get the best deal, only that you receive what you're entitled to under the FCC's Order. Further, the TA has specifically stated that it is not a substitute for qualified representation. Experienced counsel can help guide you to find costs that you might not have considered, and ensure that those costs are fairly compensated.
