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LMCC, NPSTC Request Clarification on T-Band Equipment Type Acceptance (6/28/12)
In comments filed with the FCC, the Land Mobile Communications Council (LMCC) and the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) agreed with the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) in its May petition for declaratory ruling or clarification regarding the UHF T-band suspension.

The TIA request was in response to an FCC order that partially waived the FCC’s Jan. 1, 2013, deadline requiring narrowband operation for licensees in the 470 –512 MHz bands. The LMCC agreed with TIA on the ambiguity of the FCC’s order as it addressed type acceptance of new wideband (25 kilohertz) capable equipment for use in the 470 – 512 MHz band after Jan. 1, 2011. Specifically, the LMCC agreed that the FCC should clarify its intention to both allow permissive changes to existing T-band wideband equipment and the certification of new equipment that is capable of 25-kilohertz bandwidth operation at 470 – 512 MHz.

The LMCC also stated that while the TIA petition focused on the need for clarification regarding equipment used by public-safety licensees, business and industrial licensees are equally impacted by the ambiguity in the original order, and that “all affected T-band licensees will benefit from the clarification requested within.”

“There will be a continued demand by T-band licensees for equipment capable of operating in 25-kilohertz efficiency, as the result of the order waiving the deadline which banned such operation after the end of this year in the T-band,” said the NPSTC filing. “It is possible that this demand for 25-kilohertz technologies will continue through the next decade. Unless the commission clarifies that it is also waiving the ban on the inclusion of 25-kilohertz efficiency in T-band equipment authorization applications filed on or after Jan. 1, 2011, the possibility not only exists but becomes increasingly likely in the near future that T-band licensees will need newly certified equipment during the interim period.”

Without a waiver clarification, manufacturers won’t be able to introduce new equipment in the T-band that includes 25-kilohertz efficiency, the NPSTC filing said.

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