Subject: [NEXTEL-1] FCC Continues Wireless Medical Telemetry Freeze

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2003 01:37:11 -0500

FCC Continues Wireless Medical Telemetry Freeze

Nov 05, 2003

The FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau now is in the process of
reading comments regarding a proposal forwarded by the American Hospital
Association (AHA) regarding the migration of medical telemetry equipment
to a wireless medical telemetry service, which would free spectrum
currently used by hospitals to transmit patient data for deployment to
other channel-stretched carriers. This is a fairly polarized issue, says
John Kuzma of the Policy and Rules Branch of the bureau's Public Safety
and Private Wireless Division, and he has read the first 25 or so of the
submitted comments, which reportedly number fewer than 100. Public
safety probably will benefit most from any channels the FCC takes back,
as they are needed by such agencies for increased data applications
mandated not only by their local jurisdictions but by the Department of
Homeland Security as well.

More than three years ago, the commission established the Wireless
Medical Telemetry Service (WMTS) to help ensure medical telemetry
devices could operate in an interference- free environment. As such, the
agency encouraged hospitals to migrate their medical telemetry
operations from the 460 MHz-470 MHz band to the new WMTS bands that
include three blocks: 608 MHz-614 MHz;
1,395 MHz-1,400 MHz; and 1,427 MHZ-1,429.5 MHz.

In September, after polling a number of its constituents, the AHA found
"virtually no migration" to the WMTS bands, and that the possibility of
interference has increased over time because of higher-powered
applications by telemetry gear still operating on the 460 MHz-470 MHz
band. In an effort to give these hospitals a nudge in the right
direction, AHA Executive Vice President Rick Pollack wrote to WTB Chief
John Muleta, saying in part, "As government funding for health care has
been strained, the funds to upgrade medical telemetry systems that might
reasonably have been predicted in June 2000 have not been available to
hospitals who of necessity must allocate scarce capital to meet a
variety of medical needs and new government mandates.

The bureau decided to continue its three-year freeze on the filing of
any new applications for high power operations on 12.5 kHz offset
channels in the private land mobile radio (PLMR) 460 MHz-470 MHz band
for another 180 days. Medical telemetry systems were secondary users of
these offsets, but because of requests for co-channel, high power
operations that could result in interference to medical telemetry
operations, the bureau suspended the app process.

According to Pollack, more than 165 hospitals in all areas and of all
sizes indicated they have not been able to move to the new WMTS
frequencies, citing lack of adequate available spectrum in the 608
MHz-614 MHz band; a too-short budgeting cycle in which to test 1.6 GHz
gear; a dearth of engineers to help with a transition; and no money.
Some hospitals believe they won't be able to change out their telemetry
systems for another four years, at best.

As such, the Pollack and the AHA proposed a 30-month
equipment-transition plan to the FCC for consideration, and the
commission just concluded its initial comment cycle regarding the
following key points and timeline proposed by the group:

As soon as it determines it is appropriate, the FCC should announce its
intent to lift the freeze on accepting applications for high power
operations in the 460 MHz-470 MHz band within six months.  For the next
five months, the AHA, in conjunction with the FCC and the Food and Drug
Administration, would notify all hospitals of the need to register their
geographic location and the channels they are using in the 460 MHz-470
MHz band with the American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE),
the WMTS database administrator.  At six months, frequency coordinators
would be authorized to access and search the ASHE database to coordinate
the higher-powered land mobile use of the 460 MHz-470 MHz band.

Hospitals registering 460 MHz-band systems are obligated to notify ASHE
upon terminating their use of any channels in that band, and the AHA
will continue to encourage all medical facilities to move to WMTS
channels ASAP. Eighteen months after the FCC's initial directive, to the
extent that no better alternatives were available, frequency
coordinators would be authorized to institute a 20-mile protection
distance. Any hospital experiencing interference would be required to
work directly with those land mobile licensees who are licensed in their
geographic area to mitigate such interference; however, the current
licensees cannot be pressured to make changes, being the primary users.
In Month 30, frequency coordinators would be authorized to license any
available frequency without reference to the existence of wireless
medical telemetry systems remaining on channels in the 460 MHz band.
Reply comments are due Nov. 10.

>>John Kuzma, 202/418-7479; Rick Pollack, 202/638-1100<<

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada.
http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/