EWA Files Comments in Response to TETRA Rules Waiver

(Mclean, VA) EWA filed comments on May 26 in response to the Commission’s waiver of certain rules that would permit deployment of TETRA technology in the 450-470 MHz Industrial/Business and 800 MHz ESMR bands under the belief that granting the waiver request “would not likely cause increased interference to adjacent channels users.”  In their comments, EWA took exception to the FCC’s announcement that licensees wishing to replace their existing systems with TETRA equipment would not be required to secure frequency coordination if the only change was to reflect the TETRA emission, since such applications would not “have an impact on near-term frequency selections.”  EWA requested that the FCC specifically clarify that “the frequency coordination exemption in the Order applies only in those cases when an existing incumbent system is converting to TETRA on an exclusive channel.”  Otherwise, the potential for co-channel and adjacent interference is quite high, a result that EWA presumes TETRA proponents would want to avoid.  

Further, EWA took exception to the FCC’s statement that earlier responses to the original Waiver Request were “split between supporting and opposing” comments. EWA reminded the FCC that the LMCC, APCO, NPSTC and TIA, which collectively “represent virtually every Part 90 licensee”, had advised against granting the waiver, and, instead, opening a Notice of Proposed Rule Making “in which the technical issues could be examined fully.”