Washington County, Oregon, with a population of 563,000, is currently licensed for over seventy (!) 800 MHz channels, but apparently the seventy plus channels provide insufficient spectrum capacity despite advances in system design and the application of digital technologies. Stating that its system is at full capacity and that it has completely exhausted access to public safety 800 Mhz allocations, the County filed a request for waiver at the FCC seeking early access to one Sprint-vacated channel and two Business/Industrial Land Transportation (B/ILT) channels. 

Absent FCC grant of a waiver, public safety entities are precluded from accessing B/ILT spectrum. Such requests must be accompanied by proof that all public safety spectrum-use options have been exhausted. It is EWA’s view that it is insufficient to satisfy the unavailability argument by having a public safety frequency advisory committee simply state that “we looked, and the public safety spectrum cupboard is bare.”

Fortunately, the FCC saw fit to place this waiver request on Public Notice, which will enable EWA to respond to the waiver request after a more diligent analysis of the available public safety spectrum, a task that should be performed by the public safety frequency coordinator, and the B/ILT coordinator that, in this instance, casually provided interservice concurrence. There should be no gimmies when it comes to public safety entities seeking to use B/ILT channels. Comments are due on June 9, at which time it is anticipated that EWA will present realistic spectrum alternatives for the County. (File No. 0007375570)