Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Re: funding issues.....soap box time.

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 17:48:15 -0400

-------- Original Message --------
From: "eric995us" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: funding issues.....soap box time.

Well, it seems like my last post dropped with a thud! :-)

It has been commented to me privately that APCO couldn't afford to 
make up the difference in the costs...which tells me that some aren't 
certain that $850million is enough to do this project.

So, backing up one step.  Stay with the Nextel puts up the $850 
million up front, everyone, everywhere, figures out what it will cost 
will be to do the retune and the money goes into escrow.  Once 
everyone's (everywhere) money is escrowed, then do the retune.  

This way, there won't be problems with the money running out before 
all of the region's retunes are complete.  If the money is 
insufficient, then everyone will realize it up front before any 
phisical work gets started and the plans can be adjusted.  Also any 
secondary effects of the adopted plan can be noted and more plans 
made to deal with them..and so on.....

/stepping onto the soap box/

So far, what I've seen is the Consensus Plan is a region by 
region "plan and fund as you go situation".  Something this big and 
far reaching should not be done this way.  I may be wrong about 
the "plan and fund region by region", but if so, there is sure a lot 
of words in the Consensus Plan about not starting/continuing a region 
if the money runs out.

I'm an engineer and I'm sure the engineer types will identify with my 
post.  Hopefully their bosses will identify with this as well.

Attention to detail will be even more important when no one 
person/agency/company is running the whole show.  My retunes were in 
a cellular system where I WAS GOD as far as the retune went. I'm sure 
the Consensus Plan retune won't be so simple as my retunes--mostly 
because of the non centralized control and the lack of 100% knowledge 
of 100% of the equipment by 100% of the people involved.

Plan first.  Everywhere.  Plan right down to the channel level.  
Pretend you are building a new system with pre-existing locations and 
used equipment.  Then step back and think.  

Will the new channels will fit into the existing equipment?  What 
happens if a new channel is going to be 50KHz from an existing one 
and you have only 1 TX antenna and your TX combiners aren't magic? 
Are the hybrid combiners, linear power amplifiers or extra antennas 
and feedlines (site rent costs, tower studies, additional hardware, 
etc.) available and ready to deal with this?  Will the controllers 
and radios understand the new channel spacing? Are the 
software/equipment updates ready to roll?  You're moving from 
NPSPAC...are the magic length cables in your TX combiners the right 
length?  Will the receiver multicoupler's preselectors be OK?  Will 
any transmit bandpass filters be OK?

Will the new channels will fit into the neighborhood? How close is 
the co and adjacent channel useage?  Is there anything special about 
the neighboring co-channel use...data, voice, something else?   Can 
mobile users of either system get into a place where the mobile 
user's signals cause the other system "moments of grief" (such as 
strong, unexpected signals on your base station receive control 
channel)?  Are there any weird propagation issues such as ducting or 
water enhancement that will now be an issue because you moved 
and "they" didn't?  Will the existing co and adjacent uses of the 
channel require you to modify your antenna patterns, antenna heights 
or TX ERP?  Will these changes adversly impact your coverage?  If 
different antennas are needed, has the tower study been done ahead of 
time?  Will the IM stuff at the site itself pass muster when the new 
channels are used?

When is the least bad time to do the retune?

What plans are in place to deal with unexpected implementation issues 
and the resulting upset in the schedules?  An issue could be 
something as simple as someone realizing that their TX combiners 
won't work with their new channel assignments and they have to wait 
while the emergency antenna order for a new, possibly directional, 
antenna is processed.  Can the tower crews, technicians, etc. sit 
around (at how much money per day) while things get worked out?  Who 
pays for this?  How will this mess up the schedule of things that 
happen after this?  How will THAT be handled?

Can one back out if things are going badly?  Do you have sufficient 
backups in place if things fall apart?  I know someone at another 
company (in other words, not me) who typed up a computer network back 
out plan on a manual typewriter and faxed it, instead of using a 
comptuer and email.....

How long will it take to learn the new quirks in the essentially new 
system?  Can you afford the time?

Is the money in place?  Did you ask for enough money?  Did you get 
enough money?  What happens if any of these is "no"?

Do I have enough people?  Do I trust these people?  

Do I have time?

I'm sure there are many other things that I've overlooked..that would 
be waiting to bite me if I were in the trenches.

Some might think I'm going nuts with the details here, but my thought 
is without this level of attention to detail, the Consensus Plan 
retunes will be a cluster, ahh....disaster. :-)   

Can you imagine doing the above on the fly or being hurried into 
doing something/anything because the Consensus Plan retune is heading 
your way and there is no turning back?  

/stepping off the soap box/

Eric

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