Citing serious concerns about congestion and interference that could be caused to utility communication operations, UTC filed comments in opposition to a Petition for Rule Making filed by Pyramid Communications with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Pyramid has proposed removing restrictions on voice operations on 173.2375, 173.2625, 173.2875, 173.3375 and 173.3625 MHz in order to provide Vehicular Repeater Systems (VRS). Pyramid had proposed to modify sections 90.20(d)(34) and 90.265 of the FCC's Rules and argued that access to these frequencies was needed because "current filter technology requires a separation of at least 2-5 MHz from every frequency in the mobile radio." Additionally, it cited the need for a separation between the frequencies that are used to communicate between buildings and public safety vehicles, and the frequencies that are used to repeat those communications back to the public safety radio network. However, UTC noted that these frequencies are heavily used by utilities and other critical infrastructure industries (CII) for a variety of mission critical operations. Eliminating the restriction on voice operations on these frequencies would threaten interference to these operations that include distribution SCADA (including capacitor bank monitoring and control), nuclear emergency warning sirens, and water dam warning systems. For more information, contact the UTC Legal/Regulatory Department.
