The Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System (LA-RICS)...

The Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System (LA-RICS) asked the FCC to act on a December 2012 petition seeking a waiver of FCC rules so it can launch operations in 700 MHz “reserve” spectrum. The detailed design of its system is to be complete in September and LA-RICS needs to know whether it can use that spectrum, said a filing Tuesday in docket 13-39 (http://bit.ly/Vrtmd8). Without the waiver LA-RICS would have to launch in currently allotted channels, the authority said. Making changes later would “create substantial delays” and significantly increase costs, the authority said. LA-RICS is designed to provide communications for 34,000 first responders in an area with 10 million residents, it said.