Applications and economics of the new exchange radios for basic exchange telecommunications radio service (BETR)

It is suggested that the engineering detail needed to deploy the new-technology exchange radio, operating on a coprimary basis with IMTS mobile systems at 450 MHz, is not any more difficult to engineer than any other radio system. The drop follows the same design rules for copper loops as the existing technology; therefore, it is argued that the exchange radio can be engineered using the same telephone company staff that now exists without changes to the present organization. New construction costs are high for the technology-copper, carrier, or radio. Addition of high-cost capital plant can affect the average base; therefore, one needs to keep capitalized costs as low as possible when dealing with the fixed tariff rate services provided by new facilities. It is shown that the lowest first cost and incremental costs are provided by deployment of exchange radio. The additional colocated line served from an existing subscriber terminal provides a major savings of new capital and will reduce the average embedded base per access line.<>