CCP 03-28-1994 - Laserfiche WebLink

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. . FINDINGS Needs Assessment . The Metropolitan Radio Systems Planning Committee has assessed the growing communications needs of a diverse range of public service entities. These entities include police, fire, emergency medical service, public works and other public and quasi-public service operations that the Federal Communication Commission has determined to be eligible for use of radio frequencies reserved for public safety use. . Public safety radio communications is expected to grow by 55 percent over the next 10 years as a result of regional population growth coupled with an increase in per capita public safety incidents. Public safety incidents are increasing at an average rate of four percent per year. . A survey of public sector radio communications users conducted in 1992 determined that more than two-thirds of the users had problems with their communications systems. The most common problem identified was crowded channels. . The 1991 survey also found that 84 percent of public sector radio communications users plan to make some investment in their systems within the next ten years. . . The needs of MnlDOT, the city of Minneapolis and Hennepin county for radio communications improvements are so urgent that they must switch to 800 MHz frequencies as soon as is practically possible. If agencies with urgent needs proceed independently to 800 MHz frequencies, the finite resource of 800 MHz channels will be rapidly depleted and no channels would be left to address the current or future needs of entities that would not be served by these independent systems. . All metropolitan area jurisdictions and quasi-public users could take advantage of the regionwide mobile coverage provided by the proposed 800 megahertz radio system. Approximately one-half of the users have indicated that they will also need in-building coverage. Limited Frequencies . The ability of users to upgrade their existing UHFNHF systems is limited because all UHFNHF frequencies have been licensed to users and are not available to jurisdictions needing to upgrade or expand their systems. . The Federal Communications Commission is expected to act to narrow the UHFNHF bandwidth resulting in the need for UHFNHF users to replace existing equipment by 2004. . To address the urgent need for channels to serve public safety, the Federal Conununications Commission has made channels available in the 800 megahertz (Mhz) band. The Twin Cities . metropolitan area has been assigned 90 of those channels known as the NPSP AC channels for exclusive use by public safety entities.