THE LMS - PART 15 PROCEEDING

I.       Background.

1.  This Proceeding was initiated by a Notice of Proposed Rule Making
("NPRM") issued by the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") in
response to a Petition from North American Teletrac and Location
Technologies, Inc., which is now known as AirTouch Teletrac ("Teletrac") . 

2.  Teletrac is currently an FCC licensee.  It operates an Automatic
Vehicle Monitoring Service ("AVM") which locates vehicles.  While the FCC
created AVM in 1974, it did so with some reservations about the
technology.  Therefore, the FCC decided not to adopt permanent rules for
AVM, and AVM has been operating with interim rules ever since. 

3.  Teletrac's petition asked the FCC to expand the FCC's AVM Service to
permit AVM licensees to locate people and other objects and to permit
expanded voice service.  Teletrac also wants the Commission to adopt
permanent rules for this service and to call the expanded service the
Location and Monitoring Service ("LMS").  Teletrac says it needs permanent
rules if it is to be able to attract investors and build systems.  The
NPRM contains all these proposals.  There are three other major proponents
of LMS: MobileVision, Southwestern Bell and Pinpoint Communications. 

4.  The FCC requires AVM licensees to operate in the part of the radio
spectrum between 902 MHz and 928 MHz.  This is known as a "frequency band"
or just "band."  This band is also used for United States Navy radars and
other government operations, for industrial, scientific and medical
devices, by amateurs (HAMS), and by "unlicensed" low power services known
as Part 15 services (so called because Part 15 of the FCC's Rules requires
certification of radio devices but does not require licenses to operate). 
Metricom's radios are Part 15 devices.  Part 15 devices provide a variety
of services including:  new digital cordless telephones, local and wide
area wireless data transmission, protection of life and property, energy
efficiency and conservation programs, automatic utility meter reading,
inventory control, bar code readers, wireless PBXS, and numerous consumer
devices such as wireless headphones, speakers and remote controls. 
Millions of Part 15 devices are now in the hands of businesses and
consumers, and millions more will be in the very near future due to the
advent of new digital, spread spectrum cordless telephones which offer
improved quality and range. 

5.  All these users of this band must share the frequency and, when there
are uses which conflict with each other because one user interferes with
the signal of another user, certain rules come into play which govern
which user has priority.  These rules thus create a "hierarchy" and
dictate which user must stop transmissions if that user is causing harmful
interference to another user with a higher priority. 

6.  In the hierarchy of users, Part 15 devices are at the bottom.  Part 15
devices may not cause interference to other users of the band and must
accept interference from other users of the band. 

7.  The hierarchy of users in the band is generally not a problem for Part
15 devices because the robustness, power, and technology employed by Part
15 devices is such that it does not generally cause other users harmful
interference, nor do other users cause harmful interference to Part 15
devices. 

8.  Unfortunately, Teletrac's technology is old and it is very fragile. 
Teletrac's technology will experience harmful interference from Part 15
devices, even though they are the least likely devices to cause harmful
interference.  Because Teletrac has a higher priority in the band, it
could demand that operation of the offending Part 15 device be terminated. 

9.  In addition, Pinpoint Communications, another company proposing to
provide LMS, proposes to use a technology different than Teletrac's which
will cause interference to Part 15 devices because of its extensive use of
spectrum and very high power. 

II.      Arguments.

1.  Teletrac has told the FCC that its technology will not be bothered by
interference from Part 15 devices.  This is simply not true.  (The
overwhelming weight of the record thus far complied in the LMS proceeding
demonstrates that Part 15 devices will cause harmful interference to
Teletrac's operations.) Teletrac is taking this position before the FCC
because it is afraid that if the FCC believes that Part 15 devices will
cause LMS interference, the FCC will not create LMS.  The FCC would be
reluctant to create LMS because it would not want to create a new service
which would not work due to the interference it would receive from Part 15
devices. 

2.  The Part 15 Community has told the FCC that if Teletrac is telling the
FCC the truth about the interference issue, Teletrac should not object if
the FCC makes LMS equal in the hierarchy of users to Part 15 devices.  If
the FCC removes the LMS priority, Teletrac would be forced to tolerate
interference from Part 15 devices. 

3.  The Part 15 Community has also told the FCC that if the FCC creates
LMS and does not make LMS equal with Part 15 devices, Teletrac will be
constantly petitioning the FCC to locate and shut down interfering Part 15
devices.  The Part 15 Community has reminded the FCC that it does not have
the resources to locate and shut down all these interfering Part 15
devices because there are over 2 million of them, operating at unspecified
locations. 

4.  The Part 15 Community has also told the FCC that if it creates LMS and
does not make LMS equal with Part 15 devices, and if the FCC then begins
to locate and tell consumers they cannot use their Part 15 devices, these
consumers will begin to complain to their elected officials.  Due to the
large number of Part 15 devices currently in the hands of consumers,
Congressmen will be deluged with complaints about FCC actions and the FCC
will spend massive resources responding to Congressional inquiries about
its actions in shutting down large numbers of Part 15 devices. 

5.  Teletrac has argued that due to the hierarchy of users, the Part 15
Community has no rights to complain about a new service being put into the
band, even if the new service cannot coexist with Part 15 devices.  The
Part 15 Community has responded that it has designed its devices so as not
to cause interference to users of the band who were in the band when the
Part 15 device entered the band.  It is manifestly unfair to require these
Part 15 devices not to interfere with a new user never contemplated when
Part 15 devices began operating in the band. 

6.       The FCC strongly encouraged the development and deployment of Part
15 devices in the band and the Part 15 Community responded with 
significant applications in the public interest.  The result is that the FCC
has created a substantial industry in this band which employs a great 
number of people, which has continuing substantial investment and which 
is uniquely American.  These applications will cease and an industry, 
together with the jobs and investment it creates, will be destroyed, if 
the FCC creates LMS as currently proposed.

7.  The band is not vacant.  It is extremely crowded with users.  The FCC
should not place a service in the band which is highly susceptible to
interference by other users that are currently in the band. 

8.  Teletrac's argument that it needs permanent AVM rules in order to
attract capital for its operations fails when one considers that PacTel
Corporation raised a record-breaking $1.38 billion in the capital markets
for its wireless subsidiary of which Teletrac is a part. 

9.  Part 15 devices are being used in applications which promote the
development of the National Information Infrastructure ("NII") and are,
therefore, in accord with national policy regarding the NII.  LMS is not
in accord with the national policy regarding the NII and the public
interest requires that Part 15 devices be favored over LMS. 

10.  Teletrac is a failing business which has lost money every year of its
existence.  The American public is not interested in Teletrac's
technology.  It has failed in the marketplace.  Although Teletrac has
hundreds of licenses in 36 states and the District of Columbia, it has
built only six systems and has fewer than 6,000 subscribers.  If the FCC
gives Teletrac what it wants, Teletrac will be the beneficiary of a
substantial amount of spectrum for which it will not have had to pay the
government.  Therefore, it will be much easier to sell. 

11.  There are other technologies that do what LMS does but they do it in
other parts of the radio spectrum, and they do it much more effectively
and economically than LMS does it.  Therefore, the American consumer will
not be deprived of LMS-type service if the FCC abandons its LMS
rulemaking.  The FCC does not need to create another such service
particularly if that service will not work (due to interference), will
disrupt or destroy the Part 15 industry, and will upset consumers and
annoy members of Congress. 

12.  The government is vacating radio spectrum in various bands.  These
bands will be regulated by the FCC as the government gives them up.  The
FCC could create LMS in one of these bands and could thereby avoid
disrupting the 902-928 MHz band. 

13.      Teletrac and the other LMS proponents have finally agreed to meet
with the Part 15 Community in an effort to find a technical solution which
might allow the systems to coexist.  Two meetings have been held and there
appears to be some progress toward attempting to find a way that the
services might be able to coexist.  The FCC should not take any action
until the parties involved have an opportunity to explore a suggested
technical solution. 

III.     Conclusion.

         It is patently unfair for the FCC to jeopardize the promise and
economic viability of the Part 15 industry so soon after it encouraged
significant investments to be made by manufacturers and consumers alike,
for the sole reason of giving one of the world's largest companies a
monopoly and a spectrum windfall of enormous value.  The Commission should
abandon its rulemaking proceeding and not create LMS.  If the Commission
insists on creating LMS, it should do so only if it makes LMS equal to
Part 15 in the hierarchy of users, or if the FCC places LMS in some other
band.