December 19, 1996 WTB RELEASES PRIVATE WIRELESS WHITE PAPER Paper highlights the unique role and requirements of the community Today, the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) released a white paper on the role and requirements of the Private Land Mobile community in an ever changing environment, including descriptive information on how private systems work, who uses them, and what needs they serve. The paper concludes that the need for private systems will continue, but that technology advances have created a wide range of new commercial services, including cellular, personal communication services, specialized mobile radio, advanced paging, and satellite systems, that can be used to meet some private communication requirements. The paper also describes the evolution of private land mobile spectrum and the regulations governing the private land mobile radio services (PLMRS). Regulation continues to change as a result of continued congestion of the various PLMRS bands, advancing technology, and a changing philosophy of regulation that generally focuses on marketplace solutions--promoting competition, recovering the public value of the spectrum, and encouraging greater efficiency. "This paper is an example of the cooperative effort that needs to take place between the FCC and the private wireless community. I think the paper will be a valuable tool to demonstrate the importance and uniqueness of the private land mobile radio services," said Michele C. Farquhar, Chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. "It will take a continuing commitment from the private wireless community, however, to continue to educate policymakers and the public about the benefits and advantages of private wireless services." She also mentioned that the Bureau has tentatively scheduled a private land mobile forum on January 27, 1997 (a public notice will be released soon with more information), to enable interested parties to demonstrate their equipment and discuss private wireless issues. Since the 1920s, the PLMRS have been meeting the internal communication needs of private companies, state and local governments, and other organizations. These services provide voice and data communications that allow entities to control their business operations and production processes, protect worker and public safety, and respond quickly in times of natural disaster or other emergencies. The private land mobile community is quite diverse, with 21 separate radio services that provide communications to many specific industries including, among others: manufacturers, utilities, transportation companies, state and local governments, and a wide variety of small businesses such as taxis, plumbers, and delivery services.- more - - 2 - The private wireless community has specialized requirements that private radio systems are designed to meet. Commercial services can serve some of these needs, but may not be able to provide some of the capabilities, features, and efficiencies that private users demand. Some of the requirements and features that make private systems unique include: immediate access to a radio channel (no dialling required); coverage in areas where commercial systems cannot provide service; peak usage patterns that could overwhelm commercial systems; high reliability; priority access, especially in emergencies; and specialized equipment required by the job or federal regulations. Many private users are also concerned about greater use of commercial systems because of liability issues. Some private users already use commercial services to meet some of their needs, and as the number and variety of commercial services grows, it is likely that the use of such services will grow as well. Given the specialized nature of some of the private community's requirements, however, it also appears that the need for private systems and services will continue well into the future. The white paper will be available on the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau homepage at this address: http://www.fcc.gov/wtb/whtepapr.pdf. In addition, remarks by David P. Wye, Technical Advisor to WTB Chief given at a forum on December 18, 1996, are attached. - FCC - News Media contact: Kara Palamaras at (202) 418-0654 or kpalamar@fcc.gov Wireless Telecommunications Bureau contact: David Wye at (202) 418-0600 or dwye@fcc.gov David P. Wye White Paper Remarks December 18, 1996 First, I'd like to thank you all again for taking the time to contribute to this white paper. You were extremely generous with your time and patient with our questions, but I think the paper is better as a result. Based on your comments we were able to focus the paper better and improve its readability--and hopefully, its usefulness. I'd also like to thank the people at the FCC who contributed to the paper: John Borkowski, who was the primary author of the regulatory discussions in the paper, Eli Johnson in our Policy Division, and our intern Sean Fleming. I'd also like to thank the people who reviewed the paper internally: Michele, Roz Allen, Jerry Vaughan, Gene Thomson, Ira Keltz, and, of course, Bob McNamara, who was so much help to me personally in understanding the details of the private wireless arena, but who has now left us to "pursue other opportunities," as they say. So, a special thanks to Bob. As for the paper itself, let me say first of all that it is largely descriptive. As Michele said, it describes what the private land mobile services are, how private systems work--in terms that I hope anyone can understand--who uses such systems and for what purposes. The paper also spends a good amount of time describing how the private services have evolved over time. And here we are talking about the relationship of technology and regulation. Higher and higher bands were opened to private users as technology allowed such advances to happen. At the same time, regulation was changing to reflect the new capabilities of private systems and changing conceptions as to what should constitute private and commercial service. It is my hope that the paper will serve as a foundation that will help our staff, the Commissioners, and other policymakers understand the private wireless services better as the debates over the future of wireless services generally continues. As you may remember, the original plan was to do this piece and then follow it with a more in-depth look at the issues facing the private wireless community going forward. What we found though was that many of those issues were already being addressed in the proceedings that we have going on. So it didn't make sense to us to duplicate our efforts between the formal rulemaking items and another paper--we just don't have enough time to do that. As a result, I think this will be the final product of this effort. So, what did we learn? First, we came away with what I hope is a good sense of what private wireless is all about. We weren't able to document every system out there, but we were able, I think, to describe the attributes that make private wireless services and systems unique. I think we were also able to convey that evolution of the private land mobile services I just mentioned--how things have changed over time and where the community may be headed in the future. That is important, I think, to set the context for future policy decisions. Bottom line. I think the paper makes the case that private users will continue to need private systems. I don't need to convince you all of that, but there are many people outside this room who don't understand how private systems work, what needs they serve, and why they are important in the daily lives of the companies that use them and the customers they ultimately serve. I hope the paper can help change that. Having said all that, I think that increased use of commercial services by private users is a fact of life and will continue to grow. That doesn't mean that all private companies will run to commercial providers or that private systems are no longer needed. What it does mean is that private users will use commercial services where it makes sense--technically as well as economically. I'd also like to think that private users will develop creative partnerships with commercial providers--there are a lot of synergies that I'm sure can be exploited. And frankly, we in the Wireless Bureau want to encourage that type of flexibility and creativity. Spectrum in the lower bands is still scarce and anything that can help ease congestion without allocating more spectrum is a good thing. And that really brings me to maybe the most important thing we found. Private services continue to be largely invisible to most people. Gus Gyllenhoff was good enough to send me a copy of a speech Ralph Haller gave almost ten years ago entitled "Land Mobile--The Hidden Industry." Unfortunately, I think the private land mobile community has the same problems today that Ralph outlined in his speech back then: most people just don't realize how important and integral private wireless services are; what role they play in their lives. They see the building maintenance guy or the cabdriver every day, and expect them to be there to do their job, but they don't stop to think about how that job gets done. Likewise with all the industries that make the products people use every day, whether its lumber or steel or electricity--people don't think of how they get this stuff. People--policymakers--need to be reminded every once and awhile why private radio is so important, and, as I'm sure you already know, that means you've got to keep the pressure on. And finally, I think that today, raising people's level of awareness is more important than ever. Technology has opened a whole range of new services that didn't exist before that could be used to meet at least some private needs. On top of that, the transition to a more competitive and market-oriented environment, where spectrum management is less centralized, puts pressure on everyone to justify their use of the spectrum and to prove that that use is efficient. I hope we'll be able to use this paper to get people up to speed on the issues, and that through the Gettysburg forum and other fora, we can make folks realize just how important private wireless is. Thanks again for your help. I think we can take a few questions.