Rethinking 700 MHz for Public Safety

Photo: Shaun Ward of the Asheville Police Department showing off Emergency Response Team communications gear. By Jason Sandford. CC Attribution 2.0 Generic

Emergency communications save lives.

The unfortunate corollary to this maxim: Communication failures kill. Increasingly attention is being focused on how to increase communication, not only within an emergency response organization, but also across first responders from different agencies. To remain fully connected, key communications officers have often adopted a "bat belt" approach with several communications devices - sometimes a half dozen or more - strapped to their waist. It's a necessity for communicating among the many different federal, state and local agencies' wireless networks during an incident.

Today's IT is increasingly sophisticated, and emergency response agencies and hardware platforms are proliferating, which makes the importance of interoperable communications ever more urgent. Disasters, whether natural or man-made, require close interaction of numerous organizations, but the sad reality is that too many communications systems aren't interoperable; this can lead to on-the-ground snafus, inefficiencies in service provision, and tragedies - as was exemplified in the disaster response after Hurricane Katrina. Within these contexts, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is working to open up new radio frequencies to meet first responders' increasing interoperability needs.

Current FCC proceedings focus on creating a nationwide public-safety band for wireless communications among first responders. Ryan Hallahan and Jon Peha sum up the opportunities this rulemaking holds in their 2008 paper, Quantifying the Costs of a Nationwide Broadband Public Safety Wireless Network: "The problems facing the public safety wireless communication systems in the U.S. could be significantly reduced or eliminated through the deployment of a single nationwide network that serves all public safety personnel." On Sept. 25, 2008, the FCC released a Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking after the auction for the proposed public safety band failed to achieve its reserve price. The third notice strives to achieve "the goal of a nationwide interoperable broadband wireless network for public safety entities."

While municipal CIOs and public safety leaders have applauded the fundamental idea of setting aside a band for interoperable public safety communications, details have proven hard to nail down. With the proceeding dragging into its third year, public safety representatives - frustrated with the lack of significant progress and faced with the daily difficulties associated with manynoninterconnected systems - have begun to organize and weigh in. Many of them believe the 700 MHz band is potentially a paradigm-shifter that would let them upgrade their existing infrastructures - adding services, applications, speed and interoperability in one swoop. For municipalities seeking to transition from analog systems to digital networks, the 700 MHz band provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity for an across-the-board upgrade.

Existing Emergency Response Networks Challenges
Today's emergency responders use several communications devices, which are often tailored to the constituencies they serve. Thus, fire responder radios are built to ensure that their equipment doesn't generate electronic sparks, which makes them safe to use during gas leaks. While this is necessary for obvious reasons, problems arise, for example, when fire responder and police radios, operating on different systems, can't communicate effectively with each other. Michelle Geddes, interoperability program manager of San Francisco's Department of Emergency Management, makes the succinct assessment that two major challenges exist today: voice interoperability and data operability. To facilitate this, Project 25 was established to develop interoperable, digital communications standards for emergency responders. "In terms of voice communications, the Project 25 standards are just being ratified, and [a] standards-based product is slowly coming to market," Geddes said. "The cost for the P25 technology is still extremely high, most likely due to the small market for these systems, making it financially difficult for municipalities to afford these networks."