Inaction Could be Costly Vehicle operations in violation of the FCC narrowbanding rules that are set to go into effect next year may subject licensees
to appropriate enforcement action, including admonishments, license revocation, and/or monetary forfeitures of up to $16,000 for each such violation or each day of a continuing violation and up to $112,500 for any single act or failure to act. But according to Mark Crosby, president and CEO of industry advocate the Enterprise Wireless Alliance, it will be likely more realistic that school districts found in noncompliance could see their two-way radio licenses revoked. Crosby is presenting an STN webinar on this topic on Jan. 26. Visit
www.stnonline.com/webcasts to register. Source: FCC Public Notice DA 11-1189, July 2011
with all the “players” in the district; (2) inventory all radios; (3) find out if your system needs to be retuned, reprogrammed or replaced; (4) open communication with emergency services, police, fire, etc.; and (5) develop a project management plan with deadlines. “We as an industry really need to be proactive and push this in
our school districts because we do have the majority of radios, so it’s going to affect us the most,” Anderson said. Transportation Director Michael Reinders said Winnebago
(Ill.) Schools has already upgraded radios and purchased at least 20 new ones for $14,000. Te district has 1,600 students and covers about 100 square miles. “We tried to be proactive by converting as early as possible.
We did it over the summer so operations wouldn’t be interrupted,” said Reinders. “We also switched out the repeater, which amplifies the signal.”
He added that applicants must be “careful and thorough” with
their paperwork because his district’s first application was rejected. Steve A. Simmons III, transportation director at Columbus
(Ohio) Public Schools, said they converted to narrowband radios last summer. Columbus has nearly 53,000 students and operates about 540 buses. “For us, it’s a large project because the two-way radios in our
school buses are Kenwood and the walkie-talkies for all the schools are Motorola, so we had to have two different vendors do it. It was a large undertaking,” Simmons said. “We started the process about three years ago. When we purchased radios, we knew narrowbanding was coming.” Anderson emphasized that planning for the future can save school
districts thousands of dollars, especially with another narrowbanding mandate set for 2017 that calls for a 6.5-kHz bandwidth. ■
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