LA County portion of LA-RICS public-safety LTE network halted for two weeks, as deadline looms

LA-RICS originally was awarded the BTOP grants to deploy a public-safety LTE network in 2009, as part of the federal stimulus package that Congress approved that year.

Also in 2009, the FCC established a “shot clock” for local entities that was designed to ensure that applications for tower site to support a broadband wireless were addressed in a timely manner. One stipulation included in the FCC order was a clarification that health concerns associated with RF emissions could not be used as a reason to deny the network operator the ability to install the site, if the emissions were within the FCC’s limits.

But a firefighters’ union has been outspoken in expressing its concerns about the effects of radio-frequency (RF) emissions from the LA-RICS LTE sites, referring to them as “toxic towers” in numerous places on its web site. In addition, the union has been running radio spots and video advertisements that indicate the RF emissions from the LTE cell sites can cause cancer, ALS, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease to firefighters and/or nearby residents.

“Basically, the firefighters’ union is concerned about health,” Edson said. “Pat Mallon’s team and Motorola have done the RF modeling. They don’t see any health concerns, and they think it’s well below the FCC minimums [for RF emissions], but the firefighters aren’t satisfied with that—they have their own expert. So, just like in any criminal case, we have our expert that says one thing, and they have their expert that says something different.

“I think the bottom line is that the fire department says, ‘We’re sleeping right below those [planned LTE towers], and that’s why we have a concern.’”

During the IWCE session, Mallon said the LA-RICS LTE towers are expected to emit “about 6” microwatts of RF energy into the fire station, which is less than 2% of the emissions allowed by the FCC. But the technical consultant hired by the firefighter unions has noted that the FCC does not have qualified medical experts on its staff and claims that people should not be exposed to more than “0.01 microwatts per square centimeter—50,000 times lower than the FCC requires,” Mallon said.

Mallon noted that RF emissions from a microwave oven in use is 8 times greater than from the proposed cell tower—and putting a cell phone to a person’s ear during a conversation generates 38.5 times the RF exposure.

Thus far, only LA County firefighters have expressed health concerns about the LA-RICS LTE sites being installed near fire stations; city of Los Angeles firefighters have not complained about the sites located near their fire stations, multiple LA-area sources said during interviews with IWCE’s Urgent Communications.

Previously, Mallon said that the target date for completing field work on the LA-RICS LTE project was Aug. 15, so all administrative aspects associated with the BTOP grants could be finished by the Sept. 30 date. With this in mind, Edson said he still believes the LA-RICS LTE project is viable.

“We believe we have at least a couple-week cushion,” Edson said. “If it goes beyond that, it’s going to be risky.”

Edson said one piece of good news for the project is that LA-RICS can continue to deploy LTE sites in locations where no complaints have been raised by firefighters or residents, which allow the project to progress while the issues surrounding the county-related sites are addressed. However, given the tight BTOP deadline and the fact that almost 50% of the 177 sites in the LA-RICS network are on county property, a lengthy delay would be problematic.

“We anticipate that we will not get [a BTOP extension], so it will come to some point where somebody’s going to have to decide whose engineers are correct and either continue the buildout or—for safety purposes—move them [the proposed sites]. If we have to move them, that significantly delays the project, which puts the federal funds at risk.

“The bottom line is that, if we can show over the next few weeks … that it’s truly safe—like the sheriff believes, like the fire chief believes, like Motorola believes, like our engineers believe—we hope we can get over this hurdle and get these sites built.”