UCAN completes rebanding—almost

Believe it or not, it’s been almost three years since the Utah Communications Agency Network (UCAN) was announced as the first public-safety entity to sign an agreement to secure funding that enabled it to pay for planning associated with its 800 MHz rebanding effort. UCAN executive director Steve Proctor said the last physical rebanding work on the network’s infrastructure was completed in late December. Proctor said there are still a few “straggler” mobile and portable radios that need to be reprogrammed and the inevitable paperwork associated with the “true-up” process before UCAN will be done with rebanding.

The good news is that the experience of UCAN and systems like the one run by the state of Colorado prove that even large networks can be rebanded. The bad news is that, if a first-mover poster child like UCAN—an entity fully engaged in the process as early as November 2004—is just finishing rebanding now, it’s hard to imagine that FCC’s current target of completing the first three waves of rebanding by July 1 is realistic.

Meanwhile, before the government complains about the pace of rebanding, it should first take a hard look in the mirror. Public-safety agencies along the Mexican border are still stuck in the starting blocks, waiting for the U.S. and Mexico to reach an 800 MHz agreement so they can start the rebanding process. Although federal officials have been citing “progress” in negotiations with Mexico at trade shows for the past couple of years, no deal has been announced in the four years since Nextel Communications accepted the 800 MHz rebanding reconfiguration order issued by the FCC in mid-2004.

At this pace (or lack thereof), it’s not farfetched to think that a large, complex system located near the Mexican border will struggle to finish rebanding by 2013. And Murphy’s Law dictates that the radio guy for such a system also will be responsible for ensuring that a sub-512 MHz network gets rebanded by the 2013. For good measure, he’ll probably be affected by a 700 MHz problem, as well. Just the thought of such a possibility makes me glad I only write about this industry.