Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Radio dead spots, static upset police Cellular towers often foul up their signals

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 11:46:06 -0400

Radio dead spots, static upset police Cellular towers often foul up their signals

By Aamer Madhani
Tribune staff reporter
Published September 23, 2003

Driving along Dundee Road just miles from the Wheeling Police Department, Cpl.
Tom Lorenz points to a grove of six cell phone towers he calls "the antenna farm
nightmare," a sign of the explosive growth of the mobile phone industry and a bane
to his department's radio communications.

Along with many public safety agencies across the country, the Wheeling Police
Department is finding its radios plagued by crackling background interference and
dead spots caused by wireless carriers overwhelming emergency radio frequencies.
"So far we haven't had any real emergencies. It's been
more of an annoyance," said Lorenz, supervisor of the
Wheeling 911 center. "But the potential is there for
something terrible to happen."

Dozens of public safety agencies throughout the
country--including several agencies in the suburban
Chicago area--have filed complaints with the Federal
Communications Commission and the Association of
Public-Safety Communications Officials International
about difficulty making and receiving radio calls
because of wireless interference.

So far no catastrophes have been attributed to dead
spots, areas where calls can neither be made nor
heard on the radio system. But the problem has
become so widespread that FCC Chairman Michael
Powell said last month that fixing it is a top priority of
the commission.

Agencies in other parts of the country have reported horror stories.
Denver police identified 24 dead spots.

In Anne Arundel County, Md., a sheriff's deputy--stymied by a dead spot--had to
drive blocks away from a burning home to call in a fire.

In the Chicago area, dispatchers and police officers said, such a close call has
not occurred. Still, wireless interference and dead spots have adversely affected
communications at times and has the potential of endangering safety officers, they
say.
"The expectations we have now for our radio systems is that they will work
everywhere we go," Elgin Deputy Chief Jim Burns said. "A police officer without a
radio that works properly is as naked as an officer without a weapon."

Along Interstate Highway 294 near Countryside and Burr Ridge, six cell phone
towers are concentrated in a small area, and Illinois State Police officials say
troopers lose reception on mobile and portable radios within a mile of the site.

Officials in Elgin said mobile computers in its department's squad cars are
rendered useless on the far west side of town, where a cellular carrier overwhelms
their signal.
And on certain spots on Illinois Highway 83 in unincorporated Willowbrook, DuPage
County Sheriff's Department officers count on being incommunicado.

Ron Hasereth, an official with the Association of Public-Safety Communications who
is monitoring the issue, said the problem is the result of public safety agencies
and cell phone carriers operating too closely on the radio frequency band.

The interference seems to affect only departments using 800-megahertz frequency.
For example, the Chicago Police Department radios operate on another spectrum and
does not have the problem.

Hasereth said safety agencies' radio signals most often hit static near cell phone
towers, where the wireless signals are strongest, and far away from their own
towers.
"When you have a [squad car] anywhere near these cellular towers, the calls are
not getting through," said Jenny Bostick, the DuPage Sheriff's Department
communications coordinator.

In the 1970s--long before the proliferation of mobile phones--the FCC began
assigning channels in the 800-megahertz band to public safety agencies.
Then in the 1980s, as mobile phone technology began to grow, wireless companies
started buying space along the same spectrum, often next to the public safety
agencies, Hasereth said.

While several wireless companies are operating in the 800-megahertz band, most of
the complaints filed with the Association of Public-Safety Communications name
Nextel Communications Inc., which has gobbled up many band frequencies intertwined
in emergency radio frequencies, Hasereth said.

Nextel and the association have proposed a massive reshuffling of the airwaves
that would separate emergency radio from the commercial wireless companies along
the 800-megahertz band.

The company has offered to pay the $850 million costs public safety agencies would
incur in re-banding the 800-megahertz spectrum if its plan is adopted, but it also
expects to gain valuable frequencies along another spectrum.

Many public safety agencies have expressed doubts about the feasibility of
Nextel's plans, and a few agencies have filed statements with the FCC opposing
such a move.
"We would have to reprogram all our radios and retune all our radios, which could
cost a whole lot of money," said Gary Gorr, communications director for Lake
County. "What would happen if this Nextel money runs out before your agency's
chance to re-band? Who would pay for it then?"

Roger Entner, an industry analyst for the telecommunications consultant Yankee
Group in Boston, said the Nextel plan is facing fierce opposition from competing
wireless carriers and utility companies on the 800-megahertz band.

The opposition argues Nextel would gain valuable frequencies at bargain prices, he
said.
Despite the opposition, Entner said it seems to be a forgone conclusion that
Nextel's proposal will be adopted--though it might face further tweaking.

Lawrence Krevor, Nextel's vice president for government affairs, said the company
believes $850 million is more than enough to pay for public safety agencies'
trouble in the shuffle. He also said his company would lose some frequencies.

"The problem is going to only get worse," Krevor said. "Our competitors are
proposing putting a bandage on the problem. We want to solve the problem."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/north/chi-0309230135sep23,1,6182091.story

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