The National Capital Region (NCR), which includes the District of Columbia and 18 other jurisdictions in Virginia and Maryland, will be the first in the nation to establish a public-safety regional wireless network at 700 MHz, according to a release yesterday. NCR has competitively selected Alcatel-Lucent as its equipment infrastructure vendor to deploy the new Regional Wireless Broadband Network (RWBN). It will provide a seamless interoperable, redundant wireless broadband network of networks with the capacity to transmit video, data and voice communications with peak speeds of nearly 5 Mbps using only a paired 1.25 MHz channel.

The contract is an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contract, allowing the region to purchase the equipment and services as funds are available. Included in the contract are core networking equipment, base stations, microcells, PDAs, AVL Modems and network operations services.

"I am extremely proud of our ongoing achievements for public safety communications," said District of Columbia Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. "We are eager to provide these critical interoperable tools to ultimately assist anyone living in, working in or visiting our capital region."

Alcatel-Lucent will deploy 1x Evolution-Data Optimized (1xEV-DO) Revision A (Rev A) equipment with initial phase delivery by March 31, 2007. This solution delivers the economy of scale of commercial cellular technologies with public safety grade construction and reliability. Subscriber devices will be capable of roaming onto the commercial networks when a user leaves the RWBN footprint.

"We have selected an excellent partner with Alcatel-Lucent and look forward to working together to deliver these much needed solutions to the region's emergency personnel," stated Robert LeGrande II, Interim Chief Technology Officer for the District of Columbia.

The RWBN will use a portion of the 24 MHz currently assigned to wideband communications in the 700 MHz Public Safety spectrum. The NCR has been awarded a waiver of a part of current Part 90 rules by the Federal Communications Commission to enable broadband operations in the band.

"This network will pave the way for the next generation public safety communications platform that will not only provide enormous capabilities and benefits to the NCR's first responder community but will also create a blueprint for the rest of the country," said Fairfax County, Virginia's Chief Information Officer Wanda Gibson.

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