Oakland Now ‘Poster Child’ of Post-Rebanding Interference, City Adviser Says
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- When 800 MHz rebanding goes wrong, it can go very wrong, both financially and for a community’s reputation, panelists said Monday at the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials meeting. “We're the poster child, unfortunately,” said David Cruise, public safety systems adviser for the city of Oakland. The controversy over the post-rebanding radio interference has, throughout the last year, cost Oakland more than $240,000, he said.
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"Migration to P25 [Project 25] is a tricky, tricky thing,” Cruise said. “As far as I can tell, this is just the beginning.” He came on board with Oakland last August. Oakland began its P25 radio migration in June 2011, which ignited into full controversy a year later when President Barack Obama visited and officers’ “radios continuously were failing,” he said. But no one knew why then. Investigations began Aug. 2, 2012, and by Aug. 18 AT&T was shutting down 16 2G sites due to the interference identified. But the process dragged on, with later pushback from AT&T, testing and other issues, he said.
"We tested our network last fall and the results proved we were operating in compliance with FCC rules,” an AT&T spokesman said in response. “AT&T will continue to work with the City as they resolve their equipment, network and operational issues, including promptly adjusting our wireless infrastructure where it helps the City properly manage its network."
Allan Tilles, an attorney who chairs Shulman Rogers’ telecom department and has represented PCIA, radio manufacturers and public safety agencies, said he never saw the kind of negative media attention Cruise received in the case of any other APCO member: “You don’t want to be the guy in David’s position.” He has also represented many public safety agencies negotiating 800 MHz rebanding agreements and years ago helped draft the substance of the FCC’s rules behind them. But there’s “a hole we left in these rules that we're going to have to figure out,” he said, citing all the P25 systems being initiated.
"It was on the front page of USA Today,” Cruise said. “It was covered nationally on CNN.” He called it “sort of a media nightmare” and encouraged communities to come up with a media strategy, coordinated across agencies and with city hall. AT&T is a large and powerful company, with political ties, he said, despite calling company workers receptive: “Nobody wants to be blamed for a problem of this magnitude.”
The interference came from “the near-far problem,” said Jay Jacobsmeyer, president of wireless consulting company Pericle Communications. Weak public safety signals from a distant site cannot overcome strong signals from nearby cell sites, he said. “AT&T’s got over 100 cell sites in the same geographic area.” The sites fully comply with FCC emission rules, he said: “Typically you don’t find these problems until somebody complains."
"Indeed, it is happening in various locations around the country,” Tilles said, saying Oakland is far from the only community where such post-rebanding interference reared its head. “You need to be proactive with your agencies in finding this.” Cruise said that after the media reports, his phone “rang off the hook from agencies all across the U.S.” that feared the same problem. These agencies would then call him back after realizing the problem was cellular-based like Oakland’s, he said. Tilles strongly advised communities to use the interference notification site (http://bit.ly/164235g) if suffering from similar problems. Such concerns should factor into requests for proposals for P25 systems, he said.
"AT&T’s been very cooperative,” Jacobsmeyer added, saying it’s not always easy for it to turn down the power levels to lower interference. “They lose some level of service,” he said. “They've sacrificed quite a bit to help us."
"The good news far outweighs the bad news,” FCC Public Safety Bureau Deputy Chief David Furth said Monday of 800 MHz rebanding, speaking during a separate session. “Obviously it’s taken us a long time to get here.” The vast majority of licensees has moved to new channels, he said.