The MTA plans to move city bus radio transmissions into the same
bandwidth as that of the Fire Department and EMS, despite a federal
order that warns about possible interference with first responders, the
Daily News has learned.
A recently approved $202 million contract with Parsons Transportation
relies on a type of radio system the Federal Communications Commission
bans from use on the so-called “public safety” bandwidth.
The FCC found that the technology that Parsons uses — called TETRA —
could potentially interfere with public-safety radio calls.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is making this move to
replace what it calls a “technologically obsolete” system of analog bus
radios, which for 25 years has operated on a nonpublic-safety radio
spectrum.
