Powertrunk Reiterates that its FCC-Approved TETRA Equipment can be used in all bands under Part 90 Rules
PowerTrunk TETRA equipment complies with FCC Part 90 rules and is not subject to any restrictions imposed on non-compliant equipment. No waiver is needed for PowerTrunk to sell its TETRA LMR devices in the United States for those bands for which it has been certified.
New York City, NY —October 11, 2011 – PowerTrunk™ Inc. and its parent company Teltronic S.A.U., a global leader in land mobile radio, confirm again that the company’s TETRA land mobile radio devices have full FCC authorization to be marketed and deployed in the United States without any restrictions.
“We’ve received a number of enquiries to clarify the impact on PowerTrunk of the recent FCC ‘Order on Clarification’ issued last September 28. I would like to state that the restrictions imposed by this Order to non-Part-90-compliant TETRA equipment are not applicable to PowerTrunk equipment. PowerTrunk does not need any waiver to market and deploy our FCC-certified Part-90-compliant TETRA devices. Therefore, any waiver granted in favor of non-compliant equipment along with its associated restrictions is irrelevant to PowerTrunk,” stated Jose M. Martin, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of PowerTrunk. “Our FCC type acceptance certificates are as good as a one-dollar bill so we don’t need any further endorsement in the same way as nobody needs a confirmation from Ben Bernanke to buy a coffee”.
PowerTrunk received FCC type acceptance certificates under Part 90 rules for its TETRA base station repeaters (BSR75), handsets (HTT-500) and mobiles (MDT-400) in the 409-430 MHz, 450-470 MHz and 806-870 MHz bands in 2009 and 2010. Certification for other bands is expected in the near future. PowerTrunk achieved compliance with applicable emission masks and occupied bandwidth limits by way of a minor adjustment of one of the parameters of the TETRA modulation. Such modification has been defined as “reduced power TETRA” by the FCC itself and its operational impact has been found inconsequential as the RF power is decreased roughly by 1 dB. Trials carried out in 2009 and 2010 in Vancouver, Canada, in cooperation with BC Hydro, the power utility serving British Columbia, showed that indeed the aforementioned adjustment involved no operational loss of performance. These trials also proved that various equipment featuring different levels of adjustment could still interoperate in full compliance with the TETRA Interoperability Profile (TIP) test protocols as defined by the TETRA Association, the oversight body in charge of the issuance of interoperability certificates. Therefore, PowerTrunk FCC-approved “reduced power TETRA” equipment is 100% compliant with the TETRA standard at all effects. It is important to note that another TETRA vendor, the British firm Sepura, a global vendor of TETRA subscriber equipment, also obtained FCC certificates for its “reduced power TETRA” devices in 2010.
“We’ve noted that some parties, namely Motorola, have described our implementation as ‘low power TETRA’, a definition that could misguide the user community. Since the theoretical decrease in RF power is roughly 1 dB and since no operational loss of performance has been observed in the field, I think that the FCC definition of ‘reduced power TETRA’ is much more appropriate,” said Martin.
“When using the default value for its roll-off parameter, the TETRA modulation fails to comply with Part 90 rules by the thickness of one hair; hence the required adjustment is so minor that its impact is truly inconsequential,” continued Martin. “PowerTrunk TETRA equipment passes 100% of the official test protocols which any equipment is required to pass to be certified as TETRA interoperable. Therefore, I can accurately state that our equipment is compliant with the TETRA standard and no one could truthfully state otherwise.”
In response to a request filed by the TETRA Association in 2009, the FCC issued an Order on April 26, 2011 which granted a provisional waiver from Part 90 compliance in certain frequency bands for TETRA equipment featuring the default value of the roll-off parameter, named “full power TETRA” by the FCC. On September 28, 2011 the FCC issued an “Order on Clarification” introducing a number of additional restrictions in part of one of the bands waived from Part 90 compliance last April, including the restriction that “full power TETRA” cannot be deployed in 821-824/866-869 MHz until the spectrum in that sub-band is re-ordered. However, such restriction is not applicable to “reduced power TETRA” as it is compliant with Part 90 rules.
TETRA has become the worldwide de facto LMR standard with over 2,200 contracts in place in more than 100 countries. Such universal acceptance would not have been possible if interference had occurred, a concern raised with insistent reiteration by some parties even though neither scientific evidence nor any interference cases in other countries have been presented. Canada recently approved a change in its RSS-119 rules (practically identical to Part 90) so that “full power TETRA” is now accepted in all bands. It is only to be expected that in the near future the rulemaking process underway at the FCC will result in full acceptance with no restrictions of the TETRA modulation with its roll-off parameter default value.
“Nevertheless, even if interference were a legitimate issue concerning ‘full power TETRA’, it is a statement of fact that ‘reduced power TETRA’ could not be blamed for causing interference as it is fully compliant with the FCC rules in force,” pointed out Martin.
PowerTrunk equipment is software upgradeable at any moment to feature “full power TETRA”. This will facilitate the transition upon future FCC authorization. Therefore, users deploying “reduced power TETRA” today will be capable of smoothly upgrading their systems tomorrow. In regard to certification issues, the FCC has been very clear in its orders which granted a Class II permissive change for equipment which received type acceptance prior to the issuance of the waiver last April. No additional certification will be required when the time comes to upgrade PowerTrunk equipment to feature “full power TETRA”.
An overwhelming majority of end-users around the world have chosen TETRA as the right LMR technology for public safety, utilities, transit and other industrial and commercial applications. Apart from PowerTrunk/Teltronic, major LMR vendors such as Motorola, EADS or Selex have supplied TETRA networks at a national, regional and local scale across the globe. As an example, Airwave, an operator serving the public safety organizations in Great Britain, deployed a national TETRA network currently providing full nationwide coverage (https://www.airwavesolutions.co.uk/partnerships/). Another remarkable case is the London Underground, one of the largest transit agencies in the world, which relied on its TETRA network to efficiently coordinate its resources during the 2005 terrorist attacks in London (http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/citylink-awarded-pound12-billion-contract-for-london-underground-communications-156447965.html). Some of the largest metropolises in the American continent, among them Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and Bogota, have chosen PowerTrunk/Teltronic TETRA networks to improve efficiency of their transit and/or public safety systems. For American users interested in finding out more details about TETRA, many contract awards throughout the world can be found at: http://www.formation-radio.com/form/tc_flashnews.htm.
“If I were an American police officer, I would start questioning why officers in Britain and in the rest of the world can enjoy much lighter radios, which are TDMA-capable, narrowband-compliant, IP-connectable, with built-in-GPS, and cellular-like speech quality, at a fraction of the price that mine costs,” suggested Martin.
About PowerTrunk Inc.
PowerTrunk Inc. is the subsidiary of Teltronic® S.A.U. responsible for business development, distribution and customer support for Teltronic land mobile radio projects in North America. PowerTrunk is headquartered in New York City. With 35 years’ experience designing, manufacturing, implementing and supporting digital and analog land mobile radio turnkey projects, Teltronic S.A.U. has more than 300 systems installed in 50 countries. Teltronic’s LMR solutions are widely deployed in the public safety, oil and gas, transportation and utilities industries. LMR equipment includes conventional and trunked infrastructure systems, mobiles, hand portables and dispatching consoles for TETRA, P25, WiMAX/LTE and MPT-1327 technologies. Headquartered in Spain, Teltronic S.A.U. has direct commercial presence in over 25 countries throughout Europe, Asia, the Pacific Rim, the Middle East, Latin America and the United States. For more information, go towww.powertrunk.com
PowerTrunk, Inc. Contact:
Yvonne Brown
617.489.9666
[email protected]