National Telecommunications and Information Administration

Abstract: The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), under a mandate from Congress to develop long-range spectrum plans, initiated the Strategic Spectrum Planning Program. As part of this long-term planning effort, NTIA released a report, U.S. National Spectrum Requirements: Projections and Trends in April 1995 addressing all radio services, and found that eight of these services needed access to additional spectrum in order to satisfy user requirements to the year 2004. While all radio services are important to the nation, the most immediate critical need for spectrum is for the land mobile services. Land mobile services are used by both the private sector and the Federal Government. Land mobile services include various categories such as commercial mobile radio services, cellular telephony, personal communications services (PCS), industrial and business mobile services, Federal agencies' vehicular and hand-held units, State and local public safety services, and Federal law enforcement mobile units. Current land mobile spectrum is already congested in many urban areas, and the number of systems is expected to double in the next 10 years. Additionally, the demand for land mobile services is driven by societal needs, such as demands for increased public safety services, the increased mobility of business users and consumers, and the emerging advanced transportation systems. All these factors indicate that demand for mobile spectrum will continue to increase. This report examines the additional spectrum requirements for the land mobile service previously identified by NTIA. The report develops four general options for increasing spectrum availability, investigates the allocated spectrum below 3 GHz for suitable land mobile spectrum, and identifies a number of frequency bands that could satisfy many of the land mobile spectrum requirements.

Keywords: spectrum management; land mobile radio (LMR); public safety

Disclaimer: Certain commercial equipment, components, and software may be identified in this report to specify adequately the technical aspects of the reported results. In no case does such identification imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, nor does it imply that the equipment or software identified is necessarily the best available for the particular application or uses.

For questions or information on this or any other NTIA scientific publication, contact the ITS Publications Office at ITSinfo@ntia.gov or 303-497-3572.

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