EWA Supports State of Maine

Enterprise Wireless Alliance (EWA) filed comments supporting a recent waiver request from the State of Maine that seeks to utilize a substantial number of VHF channels that are coordinated on a primary basis by the American Association of Railroads (AAR) for a new, statewide, narrowband VHF trunked P25 radio system. The proposed system would be available to all public safety agencies in the State of Maine and would also permit interoperability with federal public safety entities.  EWA noted in its comments AAR’s inability to issue even a single concurrence that would normally result from standard site-based frequency coordination processes.  EWA also stated that AAR’s claim that it need not concur with the request because the State of Maine is “ineligible to use LR (railroad frequencies)” is contrary to a 2007 FCC Order which denied AAR’s request seeking only exclusive railroad use on the affected VHF spectrum.  

EWA also noted that with continued spectrum demand and the outlook for additional spectrum allocations virtually non-existent, that all PLMR applicants, including public safety, need to consider whether all operations require exclusive use channels.  If the VHF public safety spectrum is depleted in the State of Maine, which is the premise of the State’s waiver request, then the situation can only be worse in other, more populated, locations.  EWA stated that “(I)it may be necessary to distinguish operations that must have channel assignment exclusivity from those whose communication requirements could tolerate use of a shared channel where channel access exclusivity is achieved through technological capabilities.”