Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Public safety, cell towers clash

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2004 17:14:13 -0400

Public safety, cell towers clash
King County Journal Newspapers, WA

2004-04-12
by Jeff Switzer
Journal Reporter

Officer Brad Estill last week raced to a bank robbery in Bellevue, where
a man with a large kitchen knife was escaping south of Interstate 90 in
Factoria.

Estill searched block by block for the armed felon, but static filled
the channel on his emergency radio, preventing descriptions of what the
robber looked like or where he ran.

``There were notable problems receiving the dispatch,'' said a
frustrated Estill. The robber got away.

It brought back memories of four years ago, when Estill was trying to
help a stabbed and badly bleeding teenager in the same area. He had
tracked the boy after a fight at a Burger King to Factoria Mall, and
couldn't reach dispatchers to request an aid car.

He had to call 911 on a land line.

``The system let me down,'' Estill said. ``That radio is my lifeline,
and to have it fail doesn't help me do the job the public wants me to
do.

``If this was a cell phone, I'd be canceling the plan, but I don't get
that option.''

The Factoria part of Bellevue is notorious among police and fire
agencies for having bad emergency radio service.
In fact, pick any major freeway interchange -- Interstate 405 where it
meets I-90 in Bellevue, or State Route 167 in Renton -- and chances are
police and firefighters will have trouble with their emergency radios.

It's a national problem made much worse by cellular phone interference:
The cell towers are more prevalent and powerful, and drown out the
weaker signals of the region's 800 megahertz emergency radio system.

Rush hours are particularly bad for emergency communication.

``During a drive time, when there's lots of cellular use going on, users
report a problem,'' said Kevin Kearns, director of King County
technology services.

``Some of the major intersections can be some of the hardest for us to
solve.''

There are hundreds, if not thousands of powerful cell phone antennas in
the region that can interfere with emergency communications.

Since launching a coordinated system of emergency radios seven years
ago, regional leaders have tried to work out bugs. Stronger signals,
more antennas and retuned radios helped, but booming cell phone use and
a proliferation of powerful cell towers created a bigger problem.

Renton police Deputy Chief Kevin Milosevich said the system still
doesn't meet expectations.
``It is an officer safety issue,'' Milosevich said. ``There have been
instances in the past when officers were right around the block and have
not heard transmissions. They requested assistance and it went
unheard.''

In 2000, Bellevue police were unable to reach dispatchers as they chased
down and shot a bank robber in Bellevue Square Mall.

Even an occasional breakdown in communications is disconcerting, said
Sgt. John Urquhart, King County Sheriff's spokesman. ``Our expectation
is that it work perfectly 100 percent of the time, but it doesn't.''

Kearns said the issue is not resolved, and he has led a national effort
and lobbied in Washington, D.C. to find a solution.
``Nationally, the problem has continued to grow as commercial carriers
such as Nextel have continued to aggressively deploy their systems,''
Kearns said.

Federal regulators assigned frequencies to Nextel Communications
interspersed with public safety frequencies prior to the cell-phone
boom, when it was thought the 800 MHz spectrum could handle both.

``This is a physical phenomenon that many would argue could never be
foreseen,'' Kearns said.

A solution could come this week. A plan favored by Nextel and national
emergency providers would realign the entire 800 MHz frequency band,
pushing emergency frequencies to the lower end and reserving the higher
end for Nextel and commercial cell phone carriers.

``What it means for all of us is a process of retuning our systems and
reprogramming all radios,'' Kearns said. It would take months to deal
with all 14,000 radios in the region, let alone the rest of the country,
he said.

Nextel has offered $850 million toward the cost, and in exchange would
receive bandwidth estimated at $3 billion, according to the brokerage
firm Legg Mason Wood Walker.

Opponents include the rest of the wireless industry -- including a trade
group with Nextel as a member -- as well as some cities and electric
utilities and the government watchdog groups National Taxpayers Union
and Citizens Against Government Waste.
Those groups want the spectrum left alone and instead would force cell
phones companies to eliminate problems at company cost within 60 days.

Nextel argues that reallocating frequencies is the only permanent
solution, and that Nextel be fairly compensated for giving up some
spectrum, said spokeswoman Leigh Horner.

Nextel has been cooperative locally, retuning radios and changing signal
strength in problem areas. Officials say each fix is only temporary and
federal regulators must decide on a solution.

Opponents say reallocation would take years, while the alternative would
fix problems as they pop up, said Travis Larson, a spokesman for the
Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association.

``Interference is a serious problem and our police officers and
firefighters deserve a serious and immediate solution,'' Larson said.

The FCC, a partisan five-member board, might vote as soon as Thursday to
redistribute frequencies.
But Nextel's proposed $850 million won't be enough, said Alan Komenski,
head of the Eastside's emergency radio network and Bellevue police
communications. He said the FCC might require more companies to cover
the costs of retuning the country's emergency radios.

Kearns agrees that cell phone companies should pay.

``It can't cost the public again,'' he said. ``When we put them in, they
worked fine, and the public can't be told now that it's going to cost
more to deal with a problem that's not of our making.''

Voters first approved and paid for the emergency radio system in 1992
with an initial investment of $57 million in property taxes to buy more
than 5,000 radios. By 1997, the system replaced more than 100 separate
VHF, UHF and 800 MHz systems in the county.

The system is now worth more than $100 million and backed by several
agencies, including King County, Eastside Public Safety Communications
Agency, Valley Communications in south King County, and Seattle.
Even with reallocated frequencies, topography and reception in buildings
will be a problem, Kearns said.
``The system does what the system was designed to do,'' Kearns said.
Still, police officers and firefighters want and need a higher level of
service in buildings, he said.

``To do that would take a total redesign of the system. That isn't in
the cards right now.''
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Jeff Switzer can be
reached at [email-masked] or 425-453-4234.

BAD SERVICE

Police officers and firefighters say emergency radio signals are poor
due to topography or drowned out by more powerful cell phone antennas in
numerous locations, including:

* I-405 and I-90 interchange in Bellevue
* I-405 and SR 167 interchange in Renton
* Much of Mercer Island, including the I-90 corridor
* Downtown Bellevue

RADIO SYSTEM

Besides serving as the main link for daily police, fire and government
communications, the 800 megahertz radio system is key in emergencies,
said Kevin Kearns, director of King County technology services.

``When the earth moves or weather gets bad, the cell systems get
choked'' and can't be counted on for the most vital communications,
Kearns said.

While useful, cell companies ``don't put generators on very many of
their sites,'' he said. ``If there's a long-term power outage, we expect
a significant amount of the cell phone network to go dark.

``For public safety, that's unacceptable, so we build antennas with
high-capacity generators and fuel tanks.''The region has 28 emergency
radio antenna sites from Puget Sound to the Cascade foothills.

http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/161078
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