The system, built by Harris Corporation of Melbourne, Fla. The digital nature of the system means degraded communications often go unheard, and firefighters and police officers have complained loudly and repeatedly they have been unable to summon dispatchers while experiencing interference problems. Thursday or Friday was the first time we were notified by Oakland.
We reacted quickly. Representatives for law enforcement personnel hope the city is on the right track, but point out the Harris-built digital radio system has been nothing but trouble since it was first activated. The system has suffered repeated glitches, does not work inside hundreds of area buildings, and failed the night President Obama visited Oakland in July. City officials are also investigating other contributing potential sources of interference, including T-Mobile, which also operates on similar frequencies in the area.
Ironically, the interference problem may have begun after Sprint Nextel committed to spending over a billion dollars to cover the costs of relocating public safety communications further away from its own cellular frequencies.
Back in July, police were alarmed when the radio system failed the night President Obama arrived in town. KCBS investigates in this mid-August report. Why did the FCC approve licenses so close to each other both physically and frequency-wise?
One of their main jobs is frequency-coordination so it would seem if anyone is to blame for creating this problem, it is the FCC itself. You mean like the Lightsquared and GPS debacle that destroyed that company? At least there it was the devices operating outside their frequencies and a too big to fail GPS industry.
