Powertrunk reiterates that its FCC-approved TETRA equipment can be used in all bands under Part 90 rules

PowerTrunk and its parent company Teltronic S.A.U. confirm again that the company’s TETRA land mobile radio devices have full FCC authorization to be marketed and deployed in the U.S. without any restrictions.

“We’ve received a number of enquiries to clarify the impact on PowerTrunk of the recent FCC ‘Order on Clarification’ issued last Sept. 28. I would like to state that the restrictions imposed by this Order to non-Part-90-compliant TETRA equipment are not applicable to PowerTrunk equipment. PowerTrunk does not need any waiver to market and deploy our FCC-certified Part-90-compliant TETRA devices. Therefore, any waiver granted in favor of non-compliant equipment along with its associated restrictions is irrelevant to PowerTrunk,” Jose M. Martin, executive vice president and chief operating officer of PowerTrunk, said in a prepared statement. “Our FCC type acceptance certificates are as good as a one-dollar bill so we don’t need any further endorsement in the same way as nobody needs a confirmation from Ben Bernanke to buy a coffee."

PowerTrunk received FCC type acceptance certificates under Part 90 rules for its TETRA base station repeaters (BSR75), handsets (HTT-500) and mobiles (MDT-400) in the 409-430 MHz, 450-470 MHz and 806-870 MHz bands in 2009 and 2010.

PowerTrunk achieved compliance with applicable emission masks and occupied bandwidth limits by way of a minor adjustment of one of the parameters of the TETRA modulation. Such modification has been defined as “reduced power TETRA” by the FCC itself and its operational impact has been found inconsequential as the RF power is decreased roughly by 1 dB. Trials carried out in 2009 and 2010 in Vancouver, Canada, in cooperation with BC Hydro, the power utility serving British Columbia, showed that indeed the aforementioned adjustment involved no operational loss of performance. These trials also proved that various equipment featuring different levels of adjustment could still interoperate in full compliance with the TETRA Interoperability Profile (TIP) test protocols as defined by the TETRA Association, the oversight body in charge of the issuance of interoperability certificates. Therefore, PowerTrunk FCC-approved “reduced power TETRA” equipment is 100% compliant with the TETRA standard at all effects

In response to a request filed by the TETRA Association in 2009, the FCC issued an Order on April 26, 2011, that granted a provisional waiver from Part 90 compliance in certain frequency bands for TETRA equipment featuring the default value of the roll-off parameter, named “full power TETRA” by the FCC. On September 28, 2011 the FCC issued an “Order on Clarification” introducing a number of additional restrictions in part of one of the bands waived from Part 90 compliance last April, including the restriction that “full power TETRA” cannot be deployed in 821-824/866-869 MHz until the spectrum in that sub-band is re-ordered. However, such restriction is not applicable to “reduced power TETRA” as it is compliant with Part 90 rules.