Attending IWCE is always productive for the Enterprise Wireless Alliance as it provides us with a great opportunity to mingle with members and industry friends at our booth and educational sessions in which EWA representatives participate. Staff joined industry leaders at sessions addressing the proposal to create a 900 MHz broadband opportunity...
I try to avoid responding in a serious manner to those who want you to believe that they can barely control their emotions over the potential injustices that would be perpetrated against unknowing licensees if they were not there to issue a call to arms and personally defend the masses. In this case a response is necessary in order to respond to...
I read with amazement, in the October 2016 issue of MissionCritical Communications, the announcement that Potomac Spectrum Partners (PSP) was planning to roll out a nationwide TETRA-based public safety network using Space Data’s 900 MHz spectrum and balloon communications technology. Absolutely amazing; almost beyond belief.
In August, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that proposes an opportunity for Business/Industrial Land Transportation (B/ILT) and public safety incumbent 800 MHz licensees to have priority access for a limited time period to 800 MHz Expansion Band (EB) B/ILT channels – or at least whatever...
Isn’t it time to review the three-year public safety priority access to Sprint-vacated 800 MHz spectrum, followed by yet another two-year priority access period that adds CII entities to the mix? It has been more than twelve long years since this spectrum segregation policy was first adopted, and its basis, 800 MHz rebanding, is now virtually...
EWA took a pass on this one back in 2015 when the North Carolina State Highway Patrol (NC State) filed for a waiver of the 800 MHz inter-category sharing freeze to access a B/ILT channel in order to accommodate capacity shortfall issues at its Hibriten Mountain site. At the time, the waiver request was supported by the APCO which asserted that no...
This past week, FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly asked whether certain information collection mandates by the FCC are “truly justified,” noting that certain rules stay in place past any useful purpose, while the burden can accumulate unnoticed for segments of the industry. What an incredible observation and call for action, which has EWA’s total...
Many suspecting licensees, along with their wireless service providers, are contacting EWA asking “are these guys for real” after receiving misleading communications from “Federal Licensing, Inc. Publication Division” stating that all licensees “of the Private Land Mobile radio service to maintain a current copy of the FCC Rules and Regulations...
For the record, while Federal Licensing, Inc. may have a “Renewal/Modification Division,” the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does not. We repeat – the FCC does not have a “Renewal/Modification Division.” We bring this to our member’s attention as another in a series of Federal Licensing, Inc. campaigns to secure monies from unsuspecting...
Before we get to this week’s news highlights (in EWA's member newsletter The Insider), I’m compelled to comment in response to the FCC’s back-to-back denials of waiver requests (see related stories below) from business enterprises that sought permission to use spectrum capacity that, while admittedly assigned for eligible classes of users other...