Washington Beat

The Federal Communication Commission has adopted a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) to explore ways to reduce harmful interference levels affecting public safety operations in the 800-MHz band. The 800-MHz band has been used by police, fire, and emergency medical agencies since 1980, but the emergence of neighboring commercial providers has increased the level of interference in this band. The NPRM solicits comment on how best to remedy this interference and at the same time cause minimum disruption to the existing licensing structure while assuring sufficient spectrum for critical public-safety communications. The Notice describes the

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current configuration of the 800-MHz band for public safety and non-public safety systems, discusses the causes of interference, concludes that increasing levels of interference to public safety communications on the 800-MHz band must be remedied, requests information on the amount of spectrum needed to meet the needs of public safety agencies, and discusses means of handling licensing and frequency coordination if the 800-MHz band is restructured and incumbent 800-MHz licensees are relocated to other suitable bands, discusses potential relocation bands. For more information on this NPRM, visit the FCC web site at www.fcc.gov and search for FCC 02-81.