Proposed Amendments to the Service Rules Governing Public Safety Narrowband Operations in the 769-775/799-805 MHz Bands

In this Seventh Report and Order and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the Federal Communications Commission implements and proposes certain changes to the rules governing the 700 MHz public safety narrowband spectrum (769-775/799-805 MHz).

In the Seventh Report and Order in WT Docket 96-86, the FCC adopts minor changes to those rules based on proposals from the Seventh Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. These rule changes eliminate or update outdated technical requirements and offer public safety licensees additional flexibility to operate their 700 MHz narrowband land mobile radio systems. The FCC also addresses recommendations from the National Coordination Committee (NCC) for changes to the 700 MHz narrowband rules, on which the FCC solicited comment in the Seventh NPRM.

In the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in PS Docket 13-87, the FCC initiates a new proceeding to seek comment on more recent proposals to amend the Commission’s rules to promote spectrum efficiency, interoperability, and flexibility in 700 MHz public safety narrowband operations. Specifically, the FCC seeks comment on whether to extend or eliminate the December 31, 2016 narrowbanding deadline for 700 MHz public safety narrowband licensees to transition from 12.5 kilohertz to 6.25 kilohertz channel bandwidth technology. The FCC also seeks comment on a proposal from the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) to authorize secondary use of certain channels in the 700 MHz band for public safety aircraft voice operations. In addition, the FCC seeks comment on a number of other NPSTC proposals and other issues, including signal boosters, harmonizing power limits, certification of testing of and establishing a standardized Network Access Code (NAC) for operation on 700 MHz interoperability channels.