Copps, Barnett Say Broadband Plan a Chance to Finish Public Safety Network

Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett agreed that while the national plan provides “our best opportunity yet” to set up the network, “it’s not inevitable.” Action is “an imperative, but we have to work on this to make it real.” The commission is “carefully looking at all options to see how best to structure” the network, he said. One solution under consideration is the creation of “some type of emergency response interoperability center that will ensure emergency communications work,” he said. The final network must provide sufficient capacity, resiliency and coverage, he said. It’s critical that public safety have communications options when traditional systems go down in an emergency, he added.

Partnerships must be formed and strengthened, Commissioner Meredith Baker said. Efforts to establish the public safety network must be all-encompassing and ensure all federal, state and local interests are accommodated, she said. Public safety and emergency responders need all levels of entities to communicate and share resources and information, particularly when budgets are tight, she said. The government sometimes can be the problem, she said, citing the Oklahoma City bombing and Hurricane Katrina as examples of mis-communication and lack of interoperability.

The nation’s public safety is probably the FCC’s most important issue, said Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. The National Broadband Plan should lead to improvements in many areas including health care and public safety, and ensure public safety and emergency response communities have access to broadband technologies, she said. It’s imperative for the emergency medical response and public safety communities to take advantage of broadband, she said. A mobile broadband network raises situational awareness, efficiency and effectiveness, she said.

The bad economy makes an already hard road to establishing the public safety network even tougher, Copps said. A public-private partnership approach already failed, “and now the economic downturn adds new obstacles to the many obstacles that already existed.” Although he prefers a public approach, Copps said he hopes to find a way to make public-private partnerships work: “But getting from here to there is daunting to say the least.” Allowing a fragmented public safety network is not an option, Copps said. “What we cannot afford to end up with is individual public safety entities going in dozens of different directions without assurance that their individual systems can work seamlessly with other systems.” Copps noted several jurisdictions have filed waiver petitions so they can build their own new networks. “That’s completely understandable to me given the time that this has taken,” but Copps worries “that without guarantees that these systems can become functioning parts of a nationally connected and interoperable system,” the approach will fall short of national public safety goals, he said.

The Department of Homeland Security believes a standard-based and vendor-neutral approach to promoting compatibility and interoperability across agencies, communities and jurisdictions is a way to leverage existing systems and migrate to new technologies, Under Secretary Rand Beers said. Legacy mobile radio services will stay for a long time, especially for “mission critical voice,” he noted. The National Broadband Plan should consider the operating environment within the emergency response communities, current use of broadband applications and how these two factors influence the communities’ approach to obtain new broadband capabilities, he said. The plan must address the unique availability, reliability, security and interoperability needs in the public safety and homeland security communities at all levels of government, he said.

Homeland Security has started to develop a technology road map and is updating the national emergency communications plan, Beers said. It will monitor recommendations as the FCC develops the broadband plan and, when appropriate, will include those recommendations in a revision of the emergency communications plan, he said. Network convergence could be a challenge to development of a nationwide public safety network, Beers said. So the plan must consider the development, implementation and management of preempted access capabilities which will enable prioritization and interruption capability for homeland security applications, he said. Successful emergency treatment hinges on the speed of communication, coordination and execution, he said, saying wireless broadband will play an important role in public safety communications interoperability and effectiveness. Some potential broadband applications could include real-time video, digital imaging, remote access to databases and management, mapping and mobile emergency management, he said.

Technologists, cities and first responders are starting to “talk the same language,” Paul Mankiewich, Alcatel-Lucent chief technology officer of wireless networks, said on a panel about mobile network requirements. Mankiewich said he sees “no technological impediments” to completing the nationwide public safety network, but stakeholders still need to “work closely” to outline what specific requirements are needed in a such a network. One open question is whether higher ranks of public safety should get better guaranteed service quality on the network than lower ranks, he said.

The benefits of public-private shared spectrum remain contentious. Harris Corp. Vice President Dennis Martinez called it a “tenuous business model” because the arrangement may force companies to kick commercial customers off the network during an emergency. But Fire Chief Charles Werner of Charlottesville, Va., said a joint network ensures that public safety won’t get left behind when operators upgrade network technology for commercial customers.

Panelists cautioned the FCC against calculating a rigid number of how much spectrum public safety requires. One can never have “more than enough” spectrum, said Werner. Mankiewich agreed that it’s “dangerous” to predict how much spectrum and capacity is needed, because how end-users will end up using a network is unpredictable.

In a separate panel, American Telemedicine Association CEO Jonathan Linkous urged the use of telemedicine by Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMAT). The FCC should initiate a dialogue with the Department of Health and Human Services to explore how such broadband applications can improve the use of DMAT teams, he said. Fixing universal service support is important, he said, saying the commission’s rural health program has numerous flaws and is “badly in need of an overhaul.” He also urged completion of a mandated national study and inventory and implementing federal report recommendations. The 2006 Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act directed Health and Human Services to assess the use of telemedicine for disaster response and develop a national inventory of such capabilities and a plan for integrating the use of technology in such emergencies. Yet to date practically every suggestion, recommendation and requirement has been ignored, he said.