Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Morgan County Comm. Center Director Tells Senators and Congressmen Of Being Forced To 800 Mhz.

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2003 01:22:31 -0500

Morgan County Communications Center Director Pam Monsees Tells Senators and Congressmen:

<Snip>

"Colorado is in the process of changing over to an 800 MHz system forced
by changes in the Federal Communications Center regulations."

Forced to 800 Mhz by the FCC????? What regulation is that?
And where is the "Federal Communications Center"???

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Fort Morgan Times

 911 cell calls can mean trouble in emergencies
 By DAN BARKER

 Wednesday, March 26, 2003 - Times Staff Writer

 Last month just about half of all the 911 calls to the Morgan County Communications
Center were from cellular phones,
 and that means difficulties for emergency response.

 While all regular land lines will automatically tell the center where a caller is calling
from, cell phones simply send out
 information about the telephone number. When someone is in trouble and drops or sets down
the phone, it means
 emergency workers do not know where to go to help out, said center Director Pam Monsees
at the center's monthly
 board meeting Tuesday.

 That can lead to grave consequences as some dispatch systems across the country have
listened to people die without
 emergency attention, she said.

 Cell phone carriers are now mandated to create a system to let dispatchers know
coordinates for the location of the
 cell phone. However, they do not have to do so until six months after local authorities
ask for it. Cell One is in
 negotiations with Morgan, Logan, Yuma, Sedgwick and Phillips Counties about when to put
such a system in place and
 has asked not to have a formal request until it is ready to start upgrading the system,
Monsees said.

 The counties have so far agreed to wait because they want what is promised to be a better
system when the cellular
 system switches from analog to digital. Cell One has asked for another six months for the
request and has said by that
 time it will be well underway to finishing digital changes six months after that, she
said.

 It comes down to being able to pinpoint someone within 100 meters rather than 1,000
meters, Monsees added.

 Another consequence is Qwest, which funnels charges for other carriers, will charge the
center 16 cents per 100
 telephone customers for the service. That gets shaved off the 50-cent surcharge per
subscriber the center gets for 911
 service. While this is much less than was expected before, Monsees found out Tuesday the
state system is changing
 the format for cellular calls, and this will be expensive. So she told the board she
plans to work on raising the
 surcharge to 70 cents per customer.

 This may sound like a large jump, but the 50-cent charge has not raised since the center
started in 1986. Most of the
 state, including surrounding counties already get a 70-cent surcharge. "We're well
below," Monsees said.

 Other factors in waiting are that until this change in the state cell format Morgan
County was ready for the next phase
 of wireless technology, but the other counties were not and the change to coordinate
locations also triggers other
 changes, she said.

 One is regulations say when the change occurs, cellular providers must also provide the
possibility of federal wire taps,
 which may be even more expensive than just location, said board member Mike Harms.

 Another is the issue of local number portability to take the phone number when someone
moves, Monsees said.

 Upgrade

 Monsees also reported about a conference in Washington, D.C., in which she learned more
about and talked with
 congressional representatives about the cell phone issue and about the need for
technology to connect with
 surrounding counties and state agencies.

 Colorado is in the process of changing over to an 800 MHz system forced by changes in the
Federal Communications
 Center regulations. However, the state is not able to provide funding for the upgrade,
and it is equally impossible for
 the county to finance it, she wrote in a document given to senators and congressmen.

 It would cost about $1.5 million for county agencies and another $1.5 million for the
county to upgrade the
 infrastructure. Unfortunately communications centers are specifically excluded from many
law enforcement grants
 because of the cost involved, she said.

 An alternative is to use an interoperability computer software patch to link cooperating
agencies in Northeastern
 Colorado. That would cost only about $51,600 and work much the same without the need to
buy new radio equipment
 or frequencies, Monsees said.

 She told the board legislators were not aware of the challenge facing communications
today. The director also said she
 made a number of good contacts for some possible grants she will look into.

 The board also approved:

 A fire policy in which dispatchers will now always call county fire departments to the
scene of accidents on any highway
 that runs through a city.

 The fund accounting report which says the center has $268,180.03.
http://www.fortmorgantimes.com/Stories/0,1413,164%257E8312%257E1272803,00.html#

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