Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Portland, Nextel on the same frequency

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 16:42:54 -0400

Portland, Nextel on the same frequency

04/19/03

JEFFREY KOSSEFF

The city of Portland, once an outspoken critic of cellular-phone
carrier Nextel and its interference with emergency communications
networks, is now purchasing phones from the company.

In the past month, Portland has bought 315 of Nextel's combination
cell phone and two-way radio for nonemergency employees through a
discounted deal the state government inked with Nextel.

The deal points to two trends: Nextel is appeasing even its
fiercest critics by developing a plan to avoid interfering with
police, fire and ambulance radios; and the company's combination
of two-way radios and cell phones is increasingly winning over
large employers.

"We've had city employees consistently ask for it," said Mark
Gray, interim director of Portland's Bureau of Communications and
Networking.

But until recently, the city had a moratorium on purchasing Nextel
phones because their signals interfered with the municipal public
emergency communications system, which operates on nearby space on
the frequency spectrum.

"We cannot have any tolerance for interference to our
communications from the galloping cellular market," Portland
Police Chief Mark Kroeker said in 2001.

An investigation that year by The Oregonian found that police and
fire officials in at least 21 states have reported at least one
confirmed or suspected instance of Nextel's wireless phone signals
interfering with public safety radios or in-car computers.

Since then, Nextel, of Reston, Va., has improved many of its cell
towers to reduce interference. And along with public safety
groups, it has crafted a plan to pay $850 million to replace
public safety and car communications systems nationwide for
municipalities and taxi companies that use public frequencies. The
Federal Communications Commission has yet to rule on the plan.

"I won't go so far to say it will resolve all of the issues," said
Glen Nash, past president of the Association of Public-Safety
Communications Officials. "But considering all of the
circumstances, it offers the best opportunity for coming to an
equitable solution all of the players will accept. It has the
potential to eliminate interference."

Nextel has ironed out issues that it refused to address a few
years ago, said RoxAnn Brown, the former head of Washington
County's dispatch center who was chairwoman of a nationwide
committee on the interference.

"I have to give Nextel credit -- they have gotten their act
together," said Brown, who now directs the dispatch center in
Nashville, Tenn. "They had been very helpful and diligent in
cleaning up the messes."

Nextel's actions were strong enough to get Portland to lift its
ban on the company.

"It's become something that we consider controlled," Portland's
Gray said. "All the major issues we had at this time are resolved.
It doesn't mean all the problems are gone, and it doesn't mean
they're gone forever. But Nextel has done a good job mitigating
things."

Under the discounted contract, Nextel's Motorola phones range from
$69.99 to $314.99. The monthly rates range from $22.43 to $269.99.

City employees -- often upper-level managers -- have demanded the
cell phones, which also contain two-way radios that enable instant
communications.

"The biggest advantage is for employees who would typically need a
cell phone and a radio and a pager," Gray said. "There would be
people who need to communicate with the entire group and make
cellular phone calls and receive pages. The cost is less than it
would be to maintain all three."

Nextel is the only major cell-phone carrier that offers two-way
radio service, something that has differentiated it from other
companies in the struggling telecommunications sector. The
company's 2002 sales of $8.7 billion were up 13.4 percent from the
previous year.

"When you're a business, you want an always-on system," said Goli
Ameri, president of eTinium, a Portland telecommunications
consulting firm. "You don't have to dial a number. You don't have
to worry about the fact you need to leave a message. With city
governments, they do operate like a business, and there is a lot
of value to the fact that you're able to find a contact when and
where you need them."

Some smaller carriers also provide two-way radio service, Nash
said, but they carry risks. In California, a sanitation district
received 30 days' notice that its provider was going out of
business.

"You have to be aware these things can happen when you're using a
commercial system," Nash said.

Gray said that while the Nextel radios suit the needs of
nonemergency managers, the city has no plans to place emergency
workers on Nextel phones.

"Our public safety radio system has a higher level of consistency
and reliability than Nextel's," Gray said.

Jeffrey Kosseff: 503-294-7605
 [email-masked]

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1050753567132180.xml

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