700 MHz: Users Speak Out

January 01, 2008

  

MissionCritical Communications asked three public-safety communications managers from agencies across the country about their views on the planned nationwide 700 MHz broadband network. These three professionals in local and state positions offer their perspectives about the nationwide initiative. How will these potential users of the network integrate it into their communications plans, and what challenges do they foresee?

John Johnson is a radio system analyst for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA).

MCC: Is a nationwide broadband public-safety network necessary?

Johnson: Public safety needs mobile data in the field, and mobile data will become more mission critical as new software applications are developed. A nationwide network most likely will be needed more as younger public safety-workers who have grown up with wireless devices are hired.

MCC: How do you envision the nationwide network working with your current network or do you?

Johnson: Currently, the state of Tennessee uses both a private Motorola RD-LAP mobile-data system and a cellular air card high-speed data service. For now, I see them staying as separate systems.

MCC: What challenges do you see for the planned network?

Johnson: I see the following challenges: coverage to rural areas; affordability by small, medium and large departments; timely build out; governance and management of the network; interface into government networks; and maintenance and reliability of the network.

Currently, there are more questions than answers. There are concerns that a few are making decisions for the many, as well as who is really in charge of this project.

MCC: How will the 700 MHz system benefit public-safety communications?

Johnson: Down the road, it could lead to more data interoperability. I hope, it will be so affordable and reliable that departments can use the technology to do what the Safecom statement of requirements has set forth.

Brent Finster is the communications chief for the Contra Costa County Fire in Pleasant Hill, Calif.

MCC: Is a nationwide broadband public-safety network necessary?

Finster: This may be public safety’s only opportunity to get a new portion of spectrum plus a bonus of a buildout of infrastructure. It could supplement all of the primary communications systems in use by public safety. In addition, for those areas in which agencies may be struggling to just have an operable system because of a lack of financial resources or technical know-how, this could provide a simple solution to a true public-safety voice and data system.

MCC: How do you envision the nationwide network working with your current network or do you?

Finster: I see it as an adjunct. We will continue with our current system. As the nationwide system is developed, we will look at how it might meet our needs perhaps in ways that we can’t even imagine today. The new 700 MHz broadband nationwide system would allow any public-safety user with the correct equipment to roam almost seamlessly providing data as well as voice capabilities. As an aside, this concept definitely supports something important to the fire service — the continued expansion of an excellent mutual-aid system that we already have.

MCC: What challenges do you see for the planned network?

Finster: The challenges are almost too numerous to mention. Probably the most pressing issue is the network-sharing agreement (NSA) with the D block winner that will build out the system. The Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST) chaired by Harlin McEwen is already hard at work on identifying the challenges in preparation to hit the ground running as soon as the auction is completed and the commercial carrier is identified. Public-safety agencies will need to feel comfortable about the control and management of the system in order for them to participate. PSST is aware of the critical issues to be discussed with the yet-to-be-determined commercial carrier.

I offer my appreciation to those who are working so hard for public safety as a whole to get this off the ground: McEwen, Alan Caldwell and Bob Gurss to name a few. I challenge all of the members of the PSST board of directors, which now includes four new at-large member associations as designated by the FCC, to work hard and take this matter seriously. We have one shot to do it right; the opportunity can’t be squandered.

MCC: How will the 700 MHz system benefit public-safety communications?

Finster: We have one shot at doing this right. If all goes as the PSST envisions, public-safety users nationwide will have a system that will provide a wide-area data backbone built to the more rigorous public-safety standards than commercial systems are typically built. In addition, those smaller agencies that might not have anything more than a single channel within a town, might have an opportunity for a wide-area system that could dramatically improve interoperability as well as first-responder safety.

Lt. David Hudik works for the Elgin (Ill.) Fire Department

MCC: Is a nationwide broadband public-safety network necessary?

Hudik: Any network that will allow communication interoperability among federal, military, state, county and local agencies has been needed for a long time.

MCC: How do you envision the nationwide network working with your current network or do you?

Hudik: I don’t see any direct link between this network and my current network. I see the 700 MHz network as an adjunct network that we will use for interoperability. I would imagine that with a nationwide public-safety-grade network, pricing for use of the network will be cost prohibitive. For any vendor to make money on a project of such magnitude would require substantial monies upfront. The vendor needs to show profit to stockholders, and pricing will be an issue.

However, if pricing is comparable to current data/broadband systems and this is a truly public-safety-type system, serious consideration will need to be taken about using the system as a primary data/broadband system for daily operations.

MCC: What challenges do you see for the planned network?

Hudik: The biggest challenge will be covering the entire United States. If this system is going to be truly a public-safety nationwide system, every jurisdiction that protects us will need adequate coverage and access to the system. Covering just the populated areas and major arteries shouldn’t be an option.

Site security, maintenance and redundancy will be another tough one. Which sites are considered critical and which ones are considered as all other sites? How will technicians get to critical sites in the middle of a snowstorm to meet the response time requirement to repair the site? Or will there be enough sites to have sufficient overlap in coverage?

MCC: How will the 700 MHz system benefit public-safety communications?

Hudik: This will be a tremendous first step in making a nationwide interoperable communications network. Information sharing will be much easier. The ability to send data between different agencies will greatly improve information transfer when agencies need the information the most. Instead of waiting for a representative to show up on the scene with the given information or getting a dispatcher to talk to another dispatcher to fax the information, direct communications can be made and information obtained immediately. Live streaming video from an incident to a command post or to a rearward position has great potential for public safety also.

The optimist in me says this is going to be the next best thing since sliced bread, but the pessimist in me says this is probably going to take a long time to complete, if it ever gets completed. I hope that the system works as everyone hopes, but I’ve been involved and seen projects of much smaller magnitude fail because one agency can’t afford what they want and it either gets put on the backburner or gets downgraded so much that the whole system is a total failure. I will wait, hope and see.