**DA 04-1921**

**June 29, 2004**

**WIRELESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS BUREAU SEEKS COMMENT ON AMENDMENTS BY THE
CITY OF BAYONNE, NEW JERSEY, AND THE COUNTY OF SOMERSET, NEW JERSEY TO
PROPOSAL SUBMITTED BY SEVEN PUBLIC SAFETY AGENCIES**

**Comment Date: July 7, 2004 Reply Date: July 14, 2004**

By this Public Notice, the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (Bureau)
seeks comment on amendments by the City of Bayonne, New Jersey (Bayonne)
and the County of Somerset, New Jersey (Somerset) to proposal by seven
public safety agencies in the New York/New Jersey area to operate their
radio communications systems on unassigned paging channels.[^1]
Specifically, Somerset amends the proposal to add a request for it to
use frequency 473.2250 MHz, and delete its request for frequency
479.2000 MHz; Bayonne amends the proposal to add a request for it to use
frequencies 476.2000 and 479.2000 MHz, and delete its request for
frequency 473.0875 MHz.

By way of background, on April 14, 2004, Bayonne, Somerset, the County
of Bergen, New Jersey, the Borough of Fort Lee, New Jersey, the Jersey
City, New Jersey Police Department, the Melville, New York Fire
District, and the Syosset, New York Fire District (collectively the
public safety agencies) jointly filed a proposal to augment the pending
individual applications of each agency to use frequencies allocated in
Part 22 as paging control and trunked mobile channels to support the
communications requirements of the public safety officers of each
agency. The proposal encompasses the use of unassigned Part 22 channels,
the deletion of channels currently licensed to several of the public
safety agencies so that the channel may be assigned to another agency,
and the deletion of pending requests so that a channel may be licensed
to another agency. The public safety agencies assert that the proposal
was submitted for the purposes of assisting public safety communications
and presenting a resolution to the Commission of all the pending
applications in a manner that promoted efficient and effective spectrum
utilization and management. In their joint proposal of April 14, 2004,
Bayonne, Somerset, and the other public safety agencies reiterated their
individual requests for a waiver of Section 22.621 of the Commission's
Rules, 47 C.F.R. § 22.621, and any other Commission rules that are
necessary to grant the subject applications, pursuant to Section 337(c)
of the Communications Act, as amended, 47 U.S.C. § 337(c), or, in the
alternative, Section 1.925 of the Commission's Rules, 47 C.F.R. § 1.925.

The Bureau now has before it Bayonne[^2] and Somerset's[^3] requests for
frequency exchanges and for new, unassigned frequencies that were not
previously pending under other applications among the seven public
safety agencies. On June 16, 2004, Somerset amended its applications,
FCC File Nos. 0001196273 and 0001196472, to delete frequency 479.2000
MHz, and to add unassigned frequency 473.2250 MHz. Also on June 16,
2004, Bayonne amended its applications, FCC File Nos. 0000941858 and
0001523313, to add unassigned frequency 476.2000 MHz, and to delete
frequency 473.0875 MHz; Bayonne also amended the joint proposal to
reassert its request in application FCC File No. 0000941858 for
frequency 479.2000 MHz, which it had agreed pursuant to the waiver
request to withdraw to permit Somerset to request the frequency.

Interested parties may file comments on the Bayonne and Somerset
amendments to the proposal by the seven public safety agencies on or
before July 7, 2004. Parties interested in submitting reply comments
must do so on or before July 14, 2004. All comments should reference the
subject waiver requests and the DA number of the *Public Notice* that
sought comment on the proposal by seven public safety agencies, DA
04-1593, and should be filed with the Office of the Secretary, Federal
Communications Commission, 445 12th Street, S.W., TW-A325, Washington,
D.C. 20054. A copy of each filing should be sent to (1) Best Copy and
Printing, Inc., Portals II, 445 12th Street, SW, Room CY-B402,
Washington, D.C. 20554; (2) Maria Ringold, Federal Communications
Commission, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, Reference
Information Center, 445 Twelfth Street, S.W., Room CY-B529, Washington,
D.C. 20554; and (3) Mr. Tom Eng, Federal Communications Commission,
Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, Public Safety and Critical
Infrastructure Division, 445 12th Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20554.

The address for FCC locations should be used only for documents filed by
United States Postal Service first-class mail, Express Mail, and
Priority Mail. Hand-delivered or messenger-delivered documents for the
Commission\'s Secretary are accepted only by the Commission's
contractor, Natek, Inc., at 236 Massachusetts Avenue, N.E., Suite 110,
Washington, D.C. 20002. The filing hours at this location are 8:00 a.m.
to 7:00 p.m. All hand deliveries must be held together with rubber bands
or fasteners. Any envelopes must be disposed of before entering 236
Massachusetts Avenue, N.E. Other messenger-delivered documents,
including documents sent by overnight mail (other than United States
Postal Service Express Mail and Priority Mail) should be addressed for
delivery to 9300 East Hampton Drive, Capitol Heights, MD 20743. All
filings must be addressed to the Commission's Secretary, Office of the
Secretary, Federal Communications Commission. *See* FCC Announces a New
Filing Location for Paper Documents and a New Fax Number for General
Correspondence, Public Notice, 16 FCC Rcd 22165 (2001).

Each of the applications and waiver requests can be accessed
electronically via the Commission's Universal Licensing System,
<http://wireless.fcc.gov/uls>. The full text of the proposal, comments
and reply comments will be available for inspection and duplication
during regular business hours in the FCC Reference Information Center
(RIC) of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, Federal
Communications Commission, 445 12th Street, S.W., Room CY-A257,
Washington, D.C. 20554. Copies also may be purchased from the
Commission's duplicating contractor, Best Copy and Printing, Inc.,
Portals II, 445 12th Street, S.W., Room CY-B402, Washington, D.C. 20554,
(202) 863-2893, facsimile (202) 863-2898, or via e-mail to
<fcc@bcpiweb.com>. For further information regarding the public
reference file for this Waiver Request, contact Maria Ringold, Chief,
Wireless Branch, RIC, (202) 418-1355.

Unless otherwise provided, requests for waiver of the Commission's Rules
are subject to treatment by the Commission as restricted proceedings for
*ex parte* purposes under Section 1.1208 of the Commission's Rules, 47
C.F.R. § 1.1208. Because of the policy implications and potential impact
of this proceeding on persons not parties to the waiver request, we
believe it would be in the public interest to treat this case as a
permit-but-disclose proceeding under the *ex parte* rules. *See*
Sections 1.1200(a), 1.1206 of the Commission's Rules, 47 C.F.R. §§
1.1200(a), 1.1206. Therefore, subsequent to the release of this *Public
Notice*, *ex parte* presentations that are made with respect to the
issues involved in the subject waiver request will be allowed but must
be disclosed in accordance with the requirements of Section 1.1206(b) of
the Commission's Rules, 47 C.F.R. § 1.1206(b).

For further information, contact Mr. Tom Eng of the Public Safety and
Critical Infrastructure Division, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau at
(202) 418-0019, TTY (202) 418-7233, or via e-mail to
<Thomas.Eng@fcc.gov>.

By the Chief, Public Safety and Critical Infrastructure Division,
Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.

\- FCC -

[^1]: The Bureau sought comment on the proposal in a public notice
    released May 28, 2004. *See* Wireless Telecommunications Bureau
    Seeks Comment on Request for Waiver by the City of Bayonne, New
    Jersey, the County of Bergen, New Jersey, the Borough of Fort Lee,
    New Jersey, the Jersey City, New Jersey Police Department, the
    Melville, New York Fire District, the County of Somerset, New Jersey
    and the Syosset, New York Fire District, *Public Notice*, DA 04-1593
    (WTB PSCID rel. May 28, 2004). Comments were due June 7, 2004, and
    reply comments were due June 14, 2004. The instant *Public Notice*
    seeks comment only on the amendments to the proposal by Bayonne and
    Somerset.

[^2]: Under the amended proposal, Bayonne seeks authorization on the
    following frequency pairs: 470/473.0375, 470/473.1750, 470/473.2875,
    476/479.1250, 476/479.1750, 476/479.2000, and 476/479.2500 MHz.

[^3]: Under the amended proposal, Somerset seeks authorization on the
    following individual frequencies: 470.1375, 473.0250, 473.2000,
    473.2250, 479.1125, 479.2375, and 479.2875 MHz. In addition,
    Somerset seeks authorization on the following frequency pairs:
    476/479.0125 and 476/479.0625 MHz.