ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION No. 132

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

INTRODUCED DECEMBER 9, 1996

By Assemblymen GEIST and COLLINS

An Assembly Resolution urging the Federal Communications Commission to refrain from assigning Channel 21 to commercial broadcasters in the Southern New Jersey, Philadelphia Region.

Whereas, There is a proposal currently pending before the Federal Communications Commission (hereinafter the "FCC") to assign the Channel 21 bandwidth to a commercial television broadcast station for use in the Southern New Jersey, Philadelphia Region; and

Whereas, The assignment of the Channel 21 bandwidth to commercial broadcasters creates a substantial risk of interference with Channel 20 land mobile services that operate within a fifty-mile radius of such proposed commercial broadcast station; and

Whereas, There are currently over 600 land mobile licensees in the region, including numerous Gloucester County agencies responsible for communications, emergency management, fire, sheriff and special transportation services that utilize the Channel 20 bandwidth in conformance with FCC regulations; and

Whereas, In addition to the many county land mobile services, numerous municipal public safety agencies in the region, including 53 fire companies, 27 ambulance squads and 23 municipal police departments also rely on Channel 20 for their operations; and

Whereas, It has also been proposed that other frequencies including 54 to 72, 76 to 88 and 698 to 806 MHz be assigned to land mobile services in order to provide alternative channels that would not be subject to interference from a Channel 21 commercial broadcasting station in the region; and

Whereas, Most of the equipment currently used by county and municipal land mobile services cannot be converted for use on these alternative channels, thereby potentially necessitating the expenditure of considerable sums of money for replacement equipment in order for the county and municipal land mobile services to operate on the alternative channels; now, therefore,

    Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. This House strongly urges the FCC to refrain from assigning Channel 21 to a commercial television broadcast station in the Southern New Jersey, Philadelphia Region because of the devastating impact that such a station would have on the operations of county and municipal land mobile services assigned to Channel 20 and on the entire public safety community in the region.

    2. This House calls upon the FCC to reject any proposal to designate alternative frequencies such as 54 to 72, 76 to 88 and 698 to 806 MHz for land mobile communication in place of Channel 20 due to the potential high cost of purchasing replacement equipment that would be needed by the land mobile services to operate on the alternative frequencies.

    3. A duly authenticated copy of this resolution, signed by the Speaker of the General Assembly and attested by the Clerk thereof, shall be transmitted to the Chairman and the Commissioners of the FCC, to United States Senator Frank Lautenberg and United States Senator-elect Robert Torricelli, and every member of the House of Representatives elected from this State.

STATEMENT

    This resolution strongly urges the Federal Communications Commission (hereinafter the "FCC") to refrain from assigning Channel 21 to commercial television broadcasters in the Southern New Jersey, Philadelphia Region because of the detrimental impact on land mobile emergency communication services currently assigned to operate on Channel 20 in that region.

    The resolution also calls upon the FCC to reject a proposal to assign other frequencies to land mobile services in the region as an alternative to Channel 20 due to the potential high cost of purchasing replacement equipment for the many county and municipal agencies that are unable to convert their current communications equipment for use on the alternative frequencies.

Urges FCC to refrain from assigning Channel 21 to commercial broadcasters in Southern New Jersey, Philadelphia Region.