Enterprise Wireless Alliance Responds to Latest TETRA Filing

(McLean, VA) – Enterprise Wireless Alliance (EWA) has once again filed comments with the FCC in response to a recent Commission filing from the TETRA Association.  In this instance the TETRA Association argued that the Commission has already addressed all of the issues raised by EWA in its second request for clarification and that EWA’s further effort “does not warrant reconsideration.”  EWA asserted once again that each FCC effort to date intended to address how and under what circumstances a licensee may migrate current system technology to TETRA seems to have created further ambiguity, not clarity.  EWA urged the Commission to affirmatively state that applications involving TETRA technology are subject to all applicable Part 90 frequency coordination requirements and that TETRA must be deployed in systems that are utilizing exclusive use channel designations.  

The TETRA Association added that “it appears EWA is attempting to impose a shared channel constraint on a part of the spectrum in which such a constraint is not required and not justified.”  EWA responded that “if the TETRA Association is now suggesting that TETRA should be eligible for deployment on shared channels in any Part 90 bands that are subject to a monitoring requirement, EWA emphatically disagrees.”

“TETRA is an important technology, and if it is to be deployed within the 450-470 MHz industrial/business band, the frequency coordination and licensing requirements must be crystal clear. The FCC owns that obligation. This isn’t an effort on EWA’s part to get in the way of TETRA, but to ensure investments in this digital technology are not at risk due to spectrum use misunderstandings on the part of incumbents who may choose to adapt this system solution,” commented Mark E. Crosby, President and CEO, EWA.