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Background:  Vendor is attempting to answer an RFP for a radio system, and is trying to determine if there are sufficient channels in ANY band to build the system as specified in the RFP.  This is a series of emails as we tried different ways to make a determination about which bands and frequencies would be available for this system.  These are not the complete interaction, but the most illustrative ones.

Date:  August 2004

1.

Subject: Availability of 800 MHz PS Channels in Hillsborough County FL
Date: Wednesday, August 11, 2004 9:19 PM

Sir,

Attached is my workup for 800 MHz PS channels in Hillsborough County FL. [attachment deleted]

There are no easily available channels.

The raw data for all co-channel licensees was imported into our mapping software. The two sites were we anticipated the most difficultly in obtaining 800 MHz channels, and the projected "easiest" site were in turn made the center of the map, and all co-channel licensees frequencies were then sorted by distance, for each of the 70 Public Safety 800 MHz channels.

 In order to short-space without a waiver, the minimum acceptable distance from a proposed site, and the nearest co-channel user on any particular frequency had to be at least 88 km. There we NO channels within the Public Safety Band that met these requirements.

It may be technically possible to design and build a system without causing interference to existing co-channel users, as there were some channels at 50 kilometers or better (31 miles), and a few at close to 70 kilometers (43 miles), but this would require going the waiver process with the FCC, as well as giving each affected co-channel licensee a chance to ask for the waiver to be disapproved. Not impossible, just generally difficult to get the permissions from everyone. Generally, if you DO get co-channel users permission the FCC will approve the waiver without a problem.

Another possibility is to look at any of the 50 remaining Industrial/Land Transportation Channels (Table 2A), and if we can find any, request a waiver for their use in Public Safety (this has been successfully done in other places). Realistically, however, I don't expect we would find any of these channels still free in Tampa.

I am still looking at the 700 MHz channels. I will try to give you an answer soon.

Has UHF and VHF been totally ruled out?

PROS Ltd

2

Subject: 800 and 700 Frequencies for Hillsborough County
Date: Thursday, August 12, 2004 11:42 AM

Sir,

Just had a pleasant conversation with [name], chair of the FL NPSPAC Committee. Results:

1. No 700 MHz plan has been submitted to FCC. He HOPES to submit a first draft to FCC next month, but doesn't expect it to be approved. The first problem is that the FCC has already said that they will not approve any 700 MHz plan unless all adjacent states approve the draft, and the state of Alabama doesn't even have a 700 MHz planning committee in place to give the approval for the Florida plan.

He also says that there are TV stations in the state that do not want to vacate the frequencies by the 2006 deadline, and he expects that they might hold up the process anyway, depending on the election results in November.

Bottom line on NPSPAC 700 MHz: No go in the next year at least in Florida

2. Reference the NPSPAC 800 MHz channels and the Nextel proposal: I asked him about the issue. He says that the plan is for Nextel to clear out all their channels in the entire 806 to 809 band, and relocate INTO the 821 band on up. All the current 800 NPSPAC users will be re-located in the newly freed up 806-809 band that Nextel had vacated. Dave was correct. When I get a chance, I will d/l and review the FCC plan, and look over the details, and let you know if anything is substantially different.

3. I have already downloaded all the UHF government channels within 100 miles of Hillsborough County, and am cleaning it up now. I would say it looks good for some channels, but will let you definitively know later.

PROS Ltd

3.

Subject: UHF channels for Hillsborough FL.
Date: Thursday, August 12, 2004 2:22 PM

Sir,

There are plenty of channels in the UHF band available to build this system.

I did a complete download of all government UHF channels within 100 miles of the center of the county, cleaned it up, and imported it into my mapping program.

I checked only a single site in detail, Cork Knight Road. The result:

25 kHz Channels:

There are 3 UHF 25 kHz channels that are not licensed to anyone within 100 miles of the county, and can be used at any location within the county.

There are at least 8 additional 25 kHz channels that are clear enough to be licensed at the Cork site, although contour and interference analysis may be required.

12.5 kHz Channels:

There are 7 12.5 kHz channels that are not licensed to anyone within 100 miles of the county, and can be used at any location within the county.

There are at least 15 additional 12.5 kHz channels that are clear enough to be licensed at the Cork site, although contour and interference analysis may be required.

Chart of above:
 

There will be additional channels, both 25 and 12.5 that can be used at each of the other sites. Some channels that are not licensable at the southern-most site, for example, will be able to be licensed at the northern-most site.

This was a limited analysis of the UHF channel availability for the Hillsborough County system, and is accurate for the site, and at the time of the database download, but my honest opinion is that you shouldn't have any problem getting sufficient UHF channels to build an excellent system, without concern for capacity.

PROS Ltd

4.

Subject: Frequencies for Hillsborough County FL (Tampa)
Date: Wednesday, August 18, 2004 10:22 AM

Sir,

Based on our conversation, I wanted to go over my reasoning on available channels for Hillsborough.

First, I don't have a copy of the bid spec, and (obviously) haven't taken part in any of the discussions with the client, so I don't know what may have been said or requested, but I understand from [name] and [name] that the use of 800 channels is assumed.

So, based on what knowledge I have, I assume that the use of those channels is because the county has already worked with the FL NPSPAC Committee and cleared 5 more 800 channels in addition to their already authorized 30 channels they have on their voice system.

I checked on the ability of Hillsborough County to move those channels around, and [name] (FL NPSPAC Chair), assures me that there is no problem licensing any of the County's now 35 channels anywhere within the county. This means that the cost of doing so shouldn't mean engineering studies and analysis for licensing purposes, and the cost for finalizing the locations of the 5 channels would just be the cost of licensing. There are no FCC fees, and the coordination fees would be approximately $230 a channel, and the admin fees about $1000, for a estimated cost of less than $3000 for all 5 channels.

However, if the anticipated loading for the system requires additional channels, really the only place to get them will be from channels recovered from their voice system. The question in my mind is how many of their already licensed and constructed channels will Hillsborough be willing to give up, and will it be enough? Just as a guess, I find it hard to believe that they can be convinced to give up 9 channels. From experience, no-one ever thinks they have enough voice channels, and proving efficiencies in a data system, equal to twice what they have already anticipated in needing may be impossible. (They seem to have estimated needing 5 channels, and now you want to tell them they need 9 more.).

The 700 NPSPAC channel won't be available. I haven't checked on the possibility of commercial 700 MHz channels, but trying that will most likely run into several problems:

1. frequencies probably aren't cleared, just as the NPSPAC 700 channels aren't,

2. Cost of using the channels

3. Type of agreement that auction winner may wish to enforce on the County to use them.

If the [suggested] equipment can do 900 MHz, there is always the possibility of finding a local auction winner there. These channels were auctioned in 10 channel blocks, and you might have to go with multiple auction winners, and the same problems in working with commercial vendors as in 700 MHz. It could be that a single auction winner had multiple groups of 10 channels, and reduce the number of people you have to work with. Also, the deadline for 900 MHz auction winners to have more than 2/3 coverage of their geographical area has long passed, and therefore any auction winner who is legal . . . has probably already constructed their channels for the Tampa area (whether or not they have any loaded customers would also play into their availability). Also, in the FCC proposed 800 MHz channel re-banding plan, 900 MHz owners will have the ability to convert their licenses over to SMR/ESMR (i.e. Nextel), or to sell their channels to ESMR (Nextel). This is a change from current regulations, and means that if the FCC plan is accepted by Nextel, then most likely any currently available 900 MHz commercial channels will be integrated into the Nextel high 800/900 MHz rebanding plan.

The 800 MHz PS channels simply aren't available without going the waiver route, and then I'm not so sure if you could actually get the number of channels you need. Can the [suggested] equipment use both NPSPAC and PS 800 channels in the same programming configuration?

To me, the best answer is the UHF band. There are sufficient channels available, they are relatively cheap, and there isn't anything forbidding it in the bid spec as far as I know.

I understand that sometimes there is a concern because you can't get "exclusivity", but in the Public Safety Channels in UHF, this is a bit misleading. Each of the 4 public safety coordinators have to sign off on approval to license anyone else within interference range, and in my experience that never happens. So, in effect, while they aren't licensed as exclusive, in reality they ARE exclusive. There are many system across the nation that use 450 PS channels without a problem.

My strong suggestion is to use the UHF channels. They are there, they are relatively cheap and easy to get, and hopefully, no-one else is considering them, and your system will be more robust than any competitor..

Currently, I am taking no further actions on this project until you or [name] give me more instructions, so I am waiting to hear your guidance on what your choice is on frequencies before I do anything else. Do you want me to look at 900? 700 commercial? Once you pick a band, I can give you a quote.

Sincerely,

PROS Ltd

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