TITLE
Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to grant Express Consent Agreements to various property owners, or their delegates, for the retransmission of public safety radio frequencies into buildings, where external public safety radio signals are unable to penetrate the buildings, at no cost to the City. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
The Technology and Innovation Department (TID) manages the City of Long Beach’s (City) public safety radio system, including the licensing of radio spectrum through the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), and coordinates the Long Beach radio spectrums with the Southern California region in collaboration with the Long Beach Fire and Long Beach Police Departments. City Council approval is requested to grant express consent to various property owners, enabling them to retransmit public safety radio signals inside their buildings, if needed.
Although TID operates the City’s radio infrastructure that ensures public safety radio coverage throughout all outdoor City spaces, public safety radio coverage inside buildings is the responsibility of building owners. In most buildings, public safety radio signals reliably penetrate the building’s physical structures and public safety radio usage is rarely impeded. However, in some modern and larger buildings, such as the new Long Beach Civic Center and the Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse, Emergency Responder Radio Communication Systems (ERRCS), also known as Public Safety or First Responder Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS), are needed to retransmit radio frequencies from outside the building into the building.
The California Fire Code and the Long Beach Municipal Code (Emergency Responder Radio Coverage) requires reliable public safety radio signals in new buildings in order for the owner to receive building operating permits. In addition, per FCC Title 47, Section 90, Part 90.219, “Use of Signal Boosters” operators of ERRCS/Public Safety DAS must have express conse...
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