News
FCC acts to allow TETRA in the U.S. permanently
U.S. critical-communications licensees will be able to use Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) technology on a permanent basis, but the technology remains prohibited on public-safety spectrum, according to an FCC order released this week.
"The record is clear that TETRA is a valuable option for licensees requiring a spectrally efficient wireless solution, and we conclude that it imparts minimal interference potential to the RF spectrum considered herein, i.e.,the UHF band and the non-NPSPAC portion of the 800 MHz band," the FCC order states. "The benefits to PLMR users of permitting TETRA equipment under Part 90 in terms of equipment cost and capability exceed the asserted costs to other users, which we find to be largely speculative."
In the order issued Monday, the FCC changed its Part 90 rules to permit unrestricted use of TETRA in the 450-470 MHz and 809-824/854-869 MHz spectrum bands. The action effectively extends the FCC’s temporary waiver issued last year that permitted TETRA deployments in the U.S.
"This is extremely positive news for the TETRA market," Phil Kidner, CEO of the TETRA Critical Communications Association. "All arguments against the adoption of TETRA in the US appear to have been rejected by the FCC, and we are delighted that critical-communications users in the U.S. can now consider TETRA as fully approved."
Under last year’s temporary waiver, TETRA was trialed by New Jersey Transit, which plans to procure a TETRA-based network. New York City Transit and others also have TETRA trials, according to the TCCA. Having assurance that TETRA can be used on a permanent basis should cause transportation officials to be even more interested in deploying the technology, according to William Brownlow, telecommunications manager for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO).
"I honestly think it will," spark interest, Brownlow said during an interview with Urgent Communications.
Utilities also have expressed interest in using TETRA, and the FCC action may encourage further interest from the sector, said Brett Kilbourne, vice president of government and industry affairs for the Utilities Telecom Council (UTC)
"I know there were some utilities that were actively looking to test it out in the U.S. on a trial basis," Kilbourne said during an interview with Urgent Communications. "Now, they don’t necessarily have to do it on a trial basis; they can do a full deployment.
"It should make a difference."
A digital, trunked radio technology that operates with TDMA in four time-slot channels within a 25-kHz channel bandwidth, TETRA is the primary LMR technology used for public-safety communications in Europe. However, in the U.S., Project 25 (P25) is the public-safety standard, and many first-responder officials have expressed concerns that allowing TETRA to be used by U.S. public-safety agencies would hamper interoperability — an argument that resonated with the FCC.
"We agree that interoperability is critical for public-safety applications and are sensitive to the concerns that parties have raised about the interference potential of TETRA on public safety systems," the FCC order states. "In light of these concerns, we do not believe the record supports allowing TETRA on the 800 MHz public-safety NPSPAC channels."
In its ruling, the FCC clarified that TETRA also cannot be used on 700 MHz public-safety narrowband spectrum, although there was no request to use TETRA on these frequencies.
The FCC has also confirmed
The FCC has also confirmed that TETRA complies fully with the UHF narrowbanding mandate.The 25khz channels used by TETRA comply fullly with the 12.5khz narrowband requirements and exceed this as they delivery 6.25khz efficiency as result of the 4 slot voice and data capability in this channel bandwidth.
This is great news. Working
This is great news. Working for Nielson Communications, the people behind the Green Bay Pilot, we are happy to see the FCC move forward with the modification of Part 90 to allow this awesome technology into our country without too many restraints. If anyone would like to know more about TETRA, come see us in Green Bay, or at UTC 2013, or IWCE 2013.
The article erroneously
The article erroneously affirms that NJ Transit’s and New York City Transit’s trials, both carried out by PowerTrunk, were conducted “under last year’s temporary waiver”. In both cases, only FCC-certified TETRA-Interoperable D-LMR (TI D-LMR) PowerTrunk technology was used. TI D-LMR, also named “reduced power TETRA” by some parties, is fully compliant with FCC Part 90 rules so it did not need any waiver to be deployed in 800 MHz. Consistent with this, NJ Transit awarded its RFP 11-018 for a new Bus Radio System on March 14, 2012 to Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc. with PowerTrunk TI D-LMR technology (i.e. seven months before the FCC issued the order referenced in the article). Even though Harris raised various complaints which figure on the FCC public docket 11-69, claiming that TI D-LMR was not permitted in other frequencies than those referred to in the April 26, 2011 Waiver Order, namely 817-824/862-869 MHz, the Commission granted a license in favor of NJ Transit on May 18, 2012 to operate PowerTrunk TI D-LMR equipment in 809-817/854-862 MHz (known as “public safety pool”). Therefore, PowerTrunk acknowledges the merit of the TETRA + Critical Communications Association for its efforts but, however, the introduction of TETRA technology for commercial use in the United States was accomplished much earlier by PowerTrunk by means that have nothing to do with the Waiver Order. I respecfully ask the editor to publish a new article to clarify that neither NJ Transit nor New York City Transit used any equipment “under last year’s temporary waiver”.
That’s great TETRA is finally
That’s great TETRA is finally allowed into the US by the FCC. But its a case of too little too late. Public Safety will never go with TETRA, Utilities are mostly going with DMR, and that leaves Transportation which needs mostly customized solutions for their LMR needs and are 1-shot deals (aka Very costly to support).
Dont expect a huge rush of TETRA companies into the US market place. Most of them have questionable financials and dont have the resources to truly enter the US market or even support anyone they sell to (buyer beware!).
TETRA would have been great 5-7 years ago and would have dominated the US non-PS markets. But now P25 & DMR have limited TETRA’s potential affect. TETRA’s influence in the US market will be very limited.