Subject: [NEXTEL-1] "SCAM PLAN" Will Cost PA. Statewide Radio System $55M And Further Dealys- nextel says $1.4M

From: NEXTEL-1
Date: Mon, 05 Jul 2004 17:05:50 -0400

"SCAM PLAN" Will Cost PA. Statewide Radio System $55M And Further
Dealys- nextel says $1.4M

From The Morning Call -- July 4, 2004
Clearing airwaves may cost millions State says bill for radio plan for
safety agencies could be $55 million.

By Tim Darragh
Of The Morning Call
Pennsylvania's effort to link state
departments and public safety agencies by
high-tech radio, already millions of dollars
over budget, behind schedule and under
scrutiny by Gov. Ed Rendell's administration,
has yet another problem: crowded
airwaves.

The primary culprit is Nextel

Communications, whose commercial wireless operations are bleeding into
and disrupting fire, police and ambulance communications in the 800
megahertz (MHz) radio bandwidth across the nation.

After years of heated debate, the Federal Communications Commission is
scheduled to vote Thursday on a plan to eliminate the interference, but
the proposed solution may end up costing the state millions more.

In clearing up the congested radio band, radios would have to be retuned
to new frequencies.  Nextel would pay around $1 billion to help public
agencies across the country retune or buy new equipment, but some doubt
whether that's enough to help all the affected public safety agencies.

Verizon Wireless, an opponent to the Nextel plan, estimates that the
nationwide cost might be $2 billion to $3 billion.
''What Nextel doesn't answer is what happens to law enforcement agencies
once the pot is gone?'' asked Jeffrey Nelson, executive director of
corporate communications for Verizon, a Nextel competitor.

In a 2003 filing with the FCC, Pennsylvania radio officials said a
''reasonable estimate'' of the cost of moving state radios to new
frequencies would be $55 million.

In the filing, radio project Director Donald Appleby and Secretary of
Administration Robert S.  Barnett said it is likely that a rebanding
would require ''many visits to each site'' and multiple reprogrammings
of mobile and portable units.

Nextel's Tim O'Regan disputed that, however, saying Pennsylvania's costs
would be only about $1.4 million.
Appleby and Barnett also said that despite being able to reprogram
mobile and portable units over the air, indirect costs, such as taking a
mobile radio in a car out of service, could exceed direct costs.

Under that analysis, ''rebanding'' would cost state taxpayers $110
million or more in direct and indirect costs.
In a subsequent interview, Appleby softened his estimate on direct
costs, and he backed off a claim in the FCC filing that the state has
found ''Nextel-originated interference at many locations.''

However, he did say officials continue to be concerned about
''significant'' indirect costs, which might not be covered by Nextel.

In any case, the pressure to roll out the statewide system would
intensify if additional costs come anywhere near the numbers listed in
the FCC filing. Just last month, Rendell lamented the cost and pace of
the system's deployment, calling it ''a mess.''
'Backbone' over budget

State leaders under Gov. Tom Ridge conceived the system as a means to
provide direct communications within and between agencies, replacing
disparate radios that could not ''talk'' to each other. Over the years,
emergency workers responding to events such as the Sept. 11 attacks and
natural disasters have been slowed or even imperiled because their
radios were incompatible.

Support for such an ''interoperable'' system is widespread. But
Pennsylvania's has generated increasing controversy since state Reps.
Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, and Kelly Lewis, R-Monroe, criticized it for
running over budget this spring. State officials estimate that the
$240-million ''backbone'' is now about $18 million over budget.

Separate but related contracts for mobile and portable state radios,
costing $75 million, and a state police information system using the
backbone costing another $135 million, make the full state-level
investment at least $450 million.
And that does not include the additional tens of millions more to
counties, local governments and local public safety agencies, such as
fire companies and ambulance squads, if they choose to upgrade their
equipment and hook into the backbone. Cumberland and Lancaster counties
are developing new systems using the same technology as the state — and,
like the state, experiencing delays in rolling them out.

Browne, Lewis and other skeptics say they're frustrated with the slow
rollout of the system, which was promised to be ready in 2001.

Adding yet another impediment, the main contractor the state hired to
construct towers for the radio system went bankrupt last year, leaving
the state short about 20 towers. Only in recent weeks has a bankruptcy
court allowed the state to seek bids for the remaining work, state
officials said.

Radio system operators say the system is working as promised. Without
all of the infrastructure in place, they say, the system cannot provide
the mobile-coverage goal of 95 percent of each county.

''The infrastructure and buildout of the network is ongoing and will be
for some time,'' said Steven Bosak, system configuration supervisor.

Predictions that the system would be complete in 2001, he said, were
''premature.''

'They seem to work'

The promise for 95 percent mobile coverage means that yet another layer
of costs could accrue to municipalities looking for radios that work
inside office buildings.

The borough of Shippensburg spent $45,000 outfitting its police with new
radios, for which it will receive a two-thirds reimbursement from
Cumberland County. But after testing, it determined it needed to spend
another $17,000 so its radios could reach into Shippensburg University's
buildings, said Borough Manager William Wolfe.

''We knew it was going to be expensive going in,'' he said, although he
admitted no one knew how expensive.
As for the new equipment, Wolfe said, ''they seem to work. And I
emphasize the word 'seem.'''

On the other hand, Bosak promised that cost savings would be forthcoming
as agencies find high-tech solutions using the system's data
capabilities. In addition, the state eventually will realize savings by
having to maintain fewer radio towers, he said.
But critics are buying no more promises for now. They are awaiting a
report by New Jersey consultant IXP Corp., which is evaluating if the
system as planned can attain the initial goals and what the state needs
to do to reach them.
After all, Lewis said, ''They said three years ago that the system would
be done in three months.''
Interference grows

Beginning around 1999, the same year when the state selected M/A-Com
Inc. of Lowell, Mass., to provide the state-of-the-art radios operating
in the 800 MHz band, public safety officials nationwide started hearing
garbled transmissions and dropped or blocked calls.

FCC spokeswoman Lauren Patrich said the interference was coming from
commercial wireless companies — operating within the licensed boundaries
— whose transmissions bumped into nearby public safety signals. Decades
earlier, the FCC designated part of the 800 MHz band for expanding
public safety needs.

''I don't think people thought there'd be so many public safety users,
or even if they knew there would be cellular phones,'' Patrich said.

As Nextel's operations grew — as well as wireless business at Verizon,
Cingular and other wireless providers — interference did as well.

A survey of communications officials nationwide showed examples of
interference to 800 MHz public safety radios in states from Florida to
Hawaii. Alan Tilles, a lawyer who helped draft the Nextel plan, also
represents the city of Denver and said its radio communications have
been hit hard.

''Denver is only protected at 50 percent of the locations, 50 percent of
the time,'' he said.
The Nextel plan

When initial measures failed to halt interference, Nextel and a
coalition of agencies nationwide developed a plan to ''reband'' the 800
MHz band. Under that plan, Nextel would give up licenses in the 700 and
800 MHz bands, and the FCC would reissue licenses so similar uses would
be bunched together. In general, public safety would be at the bottom of
the 800 MHz band (near other public safety licensees in the 700 MHz
band), private wireless users in the middle and commercial wireless
operators at the high end. Each would be separated by a buffer.

Nextel also would kick in funds to help pay for public safety's
transition costs, and, in return, receive a 10 MHz swath of space higher
up the radio spectrum in the 1.9 Gigahertz (GHz) band.

As much as anything, the proposed swap infuriated opponents of the plan.
Verizon argued that the FCC has no right to award spectrum to Nextel,
saying it should be auctioned to the highest bidder. If the FCC insisted
on a swap, the company said, it should give Nextel space at 2.1 GHz,
which Verizon's Nelson described as desirable space but not the ''prime
beachfront property'' Nextel sought at 1.9 GHz.

Late last month, FCC Chairman Michael Powell was widely reported to have
decided on the Nextel-backed plan, stipulating that the company put up
about $3 billion and spectrum space.

Nelson said Verizon would follow through on promises to sue if the plan
gets the FCC's green light.

Nextel's O'Regan said that since case-by-case solutions have been
insufficient, and that only rebanding would provide clear public safety
communications — the main goal for the public and first responders.
''What is the value,'' he said … ''of one crisis situation that does not
happen?''

No estimate when it will work

A Verizon lawsuit could create another obstacle in the full development
of the state system.

As of now, about 4,000 people have limited use of the system, which is
designed to accommodate 50,000. State officials no longer estimate when
the infrastructure will be finished and the 95 percent coverage goal
will be attained.

Nor are they willing to say when the radios will be ready to deliver
statewide ''mission critical'' services. State Office of Administration
spokeswoman Mia DeVane said officials will have a better idea of that
when IXP issues its report, scheduled for next month.

Several state agencies use the radios, but performance around the state
has been uneven.

Cumberland County saved thousands piggybacking on the state system,
Chief Clerk John Connolly said. It's also 600 percent more powerful than
the previous county system, he said.

But in a recent test, operators were chagrined when a radio failed to
receive a signal, however Shippensburg Police Chief Fred Scott's Nextel
unit chirped to life.

''It was a laughingstock and an embarrassment,'' Scott said, adding,
''I'm not a big fan of it.''
On the state system, Department of Transportation workers complained
that portable units were unreliable after they switched to the radio
system last year. So PennDOT worked out a backup solution, spokesman Ed
Myslewicz said.

They bought cell phones.
[email-masked]
610-778-2259

Copyright © 2004, The Morning Call
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1-5radiojul04,0,70087.story?coll==all-newslocal-hed

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