Meeting Minutes
New England Region 19 700 MHz
Technical Advisory Committee Meeting
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Kennebunkport
Fire Department
32
North Street
Kennebunkport,
ME 04046
Mr. Jerry Zarwanski of CT chaired the meeting. The meeting was opened at 10:10 AM. An agenda and minutes to the previous meeting were emailed to all committee members prior to the meeting and copies were also available for those attending the meeting.
Chairman Zarwanski noted that this meeting was originally scheduled for March 13th, but inclement weather forced a postponement to todayÕs date. After a quick attendance check, Chairman Zarwanski advised attendees that a proper number of members and states were in attendance to create a quorum of committee members.
Members are allowed to call in to the meeting via a telephone conference bridge. Attendees participating by Conference Bridge:
Steve
Mallory – ME
Steve
Brown - CT
George Carbonell - CT
Lee Savary
– NH
Agenda Item 1: Approval
of Minutes
A copy of the minutes from the December 12, 2017 quarterly meeting in Putney, VT was available to attendees. Motion was raised to approve the minutes by Steve Brown, seconded by George Carbonell. The minutes were approved by unanimous voice vote.
Agenda Item 2:
State Updates
Connecticut: DESPP Public Safety
Data Network (PSDN) by Vice Chairman Steve Verbil.
á
NextGen 911 system is fully
operational and working well on the PSDN Network.
á
Approximately 50 CT
towns and municipalities are utilizing portions of the PSDN through a state
governance approval process.
CT Statewide Next Gen 911:
á
Next Gen 911 equipment
installation and testing for the Text-to-911 feature is ongoing.
á
It was noted that
implementing Text-to-911 is much more difficult and time consuming than
anticipated.
á
Texting capability is now expected to be implemented sometime during 2018.
CT State Police P25 700/800 Radio System: ( Mark Matson )
á
CT P25 System
expansion proceeding and more site installs are in process with full core implementation
still planned for 2019.
á
Coverage reliability tile
testing complete for first half of state completed, full statewide testing expected
by Summer 2018.
á
Town of Stonington
added to CSP Radio System, in depth tile coverage testing is in progress.
Massachusetts: MA State Police Statewide Radio System
á No Report presented at this time.
New Hampshire: Statewide P25 VHF system.
á
Mr. John Stevens, NH
SPOC and SWIC, was present to give a brief update.
á RFP to upgrade the legacy State Police P25 LMR radio and dispatch console infrastructure has been completed and further progress is expected soon.
Rhode Island: Statewide Radio System.
á
Comments by Mr. Gil Woodside from RIEMA public
office
á
The Rhode Island HP
Data system project is on-going.
á No upgrades to 700 MHz systems, a report on 800 MHz system to follow during 2nd half of this meeting.
Maine: Steve Mallory reported no significant
changes to comment on at this time.
Vermont: No Report provided at this time.
Agenda Item 3: FCC
Update
á Region 8 Chairman waiting for FCC/Congress to decide what actions they may take related to T-Band frequencies in use or in place in the large cities.
á Region 8 does not plan to open a 700 MHz Reserve Channel Window or consider providing concurrence to adj state who allocated 700 MHz Reserve frequencies to applicants moving away from T-Band frequencies prior to the FCC/Congress decision.
á Chairman Zarwanski asked attendees for comments regarding opening a Region 19 700 MHz Window, knowing that Region 8 will not provide concurrences.
á Steve Verbil made a motion to not open a 700 MHz Reserve Channel window at this time. Seconded by George Carbonell.
á Mr. Verbil provided comments on the T-Band situation. He recommends not wasting applicantÕs time and engineering funds to request replacement frequencies as long as adj state concurrence was apparently not available.
á Chairman Zarwanski provided additional discussion of an alternative means of providing out-of-pool general use frequencies in the meantime.
á Discussion centered on the rules for allocation of frequencies contained in the Region 19 700 and 800 MHz frequency plans, especially if frequencies are allocated without regard to the county allocations originally decided.
á A vote on the motion to not open a window was taken and the motion was passed by unanimous voice vote of attendees.
á Additional discussion was held related to modifying the current plan to allow single entities to receive 700 MHz frequencies which are allocated by rule for countywide systems, including ÒOrphaned ChannelsÓ.
á It was noted that that this proposed use would most likely cause the region to file a plan modification and a suggestion was made to wait for the FCC decision to take place.
á Region 19 discussion on these issues to be held at future meetings.
á
An in-depth discussion on FIRSTNET (Band 14) LTE
network build out by AT&T was held.
á
Mr. Varney described AT&TÕs progress with
testing devices, core development, RAN development, and user applications.
á
It was noted that most AT&T milestones are
ahead of schedule.
á
AT&T is holding nationwide outreach meetings
to present their plan offerings and their commitment to build out the FIRSTNET public
safety LTE Band 14 nationwide system.
á
Discussion among attendees centered on
non-AT&T customer access to the Band 14 LTE FIRSTNET System. Access will be
through AT&T Ran network for authorized users either via the Public Safety
Core or the AT&T Customer Core.
Agenda Item 5:
Applications and Engineering
1. Regions 19, 8, and 30 continue to discuss and evaluate common engineering parameters for 700 and 800 MHz frequency use.
2. Applicants are now required to use the new CAPRADAP program and provide proper CSV format for application to be considered.
3. Programs accepted are: ATDI, Comstudy, and FreqEasy and certain color formats are used for each parameter.
4. An engineering guideline document will be forthcoming and distributed to NE and Eastern District members for comment and suggestions.
5. Once a consensus is achieved, the common engineering parameters and color parameters will be placed on the RPC19 web site.
1. The technical subcommittee continues to hold monthly conference calls on the first Thursday of each month at 8 AM.
2. New and pending applications are reviewed and voted for acceptance by members, most reviews completed within 30 days.
3. Since the monthly meeting date and time may be fluid, Chairman Zarwanski once again invited potential attendees to sign on as a member of the technical subcommittee in order to receive the proper meeting notifications.
Agenda Item 6: Region
19 Applications
A.
MASS State Police: John Ruggiero – MASP
a. MSP application for 700 MHz frequencies still awaiting LOC from Suffolk County, NY.
b. MSP application must be filed on the CAPRADAP program to continue to be processed for adjacent region concurrence, etc
Agenda Item 7: Region
8 and 30 700 MHz Concurrence Applications
Chairman Zarwanski advised all adjacent region concurrences have been completed at this time.
Agenda Item 8:
National Regional Planning Committee (NRPC)
A. CAPRAD and CAPRADAP Program Use (Chairman Zarwanski)
a. Both programs are now fully operational, but not all regions are utilizing them.
b. Goal is for all regions to make full use of the applications by implementing additional features CAPRAD and CAPRADAP.
c. New Features: CAPRAD. A calendar section and a document archive section for frequency allocations, application procedures, and plan documents have been added and are now functional.
d. New Features: CAPRADAP; New application review clock tool (30 days) has been added to help move applications through the system faster.
e. CAPRADAP webinars have been held with additional webinars to be announced by NRPC or APCO HQ.
B. NRPC Eastern District Initiative.
a. Chairman Zarwanski is NRPC Eastern Region Director.
b. NRPC is requesting all regions to create a best practices guide for 700/800 MHz application submittals and engineering procedures.
c. Goal is to speed up the approval process.
d. An in-depth technical PowerPoint, approved by the NRPC committee, was provided.
e. Applicants must pay particular attention to application accuracy and loading for large system (5 channel or more) applications.
f. Paper/electronic copies of the ppt presentation will be available from Eastern District Director ZarwanskiÕs office by request.
g. The NRPC is providing additional CAPRAD and Engineering training webinars to members as funding permits. Some training will be available to attendees of the APCO Annual Conference in August 2018.
Agenda Item 9: 4.9
GHz
a.
Chairman Zarwanski noted
latest FCC update regarding use of 4.9 GHz frequencies.
b.
Proposal to change
bandwidth allocations to support new initiatives in the areas of drone and
other airborne devices.
c.
Reminder regarding the
potential for interference if users do not properly file the fixed use license
applications.
d.
Entities wanting to
install fixed transmitter 4.9 GHz point to point systems should review existing
path licenses before deploying to prevent interference.
e.
Users should document
all use of 4.9 GHz to protect their spectrum from future FCC proposals for use
of the 4.9 GHz band frequencies.
f.
See FCC 6th
report and order or most recent information data sheet (handout) for latest
information.
Agenda Item 9: New
Business
A. Next Meeting date and Location:
a. The next meeting will be held June 12, 2018 in Cranston RI at the Rhode Island Emergency Operations Center.
b. Directions will be found on the Region 19 web site.(www.ner700Mhz.org)
c. Meeting dates and times for 2018 have been submitted to FCC for Rhode Island (June), Connecticut (September), and New Hampshire (December).
B.
New Business – Announcements:
a.
No further comments or new business items were
presented.
Old Business
Seeing no further comments or new business, Chairman Zarwanski asked for a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn by Steve Verbil and seconded by Steve Brown. All members voted unanimously to adjourn at 11:50 AM.
Submitted - Jim Kowalik – Secretary