Buildout Requirements Proposed for Local Public Safety Networks
In proposing requirements for building out local public- safety systems to the FCC, the Public Safety Spectrum Trust’s main goals are ensuring nationwide roaming, interoperability and priority service among the local systems and a future nationwide public-safety broadband network, said Harlin McEwen, the chairman of the 700 MHz public safety broadband licensee. Based on a review of a report about local needs by the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council’s broadband task force, the recommendations underline the need for a standardized system, he said in an interview.
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The trust endorses much of the report, including recommendations to set a timetable for local public safety operators to carry out the buildout requirements, McEwen wrote in an ex parte filing at the commission. Technology changes to support interoperability among local systems and nationwide network should be allowed for in construction and afterward, McEwen said. He urged the FCC to condition the approval of any spectrum lease by the trust to local public safety operators on a commitment to implement promptly any network, equipment and other technology changes.
Paying for construction is a concern, McEwen said. That’s why municipalities or regions should be required to have financing plans, he said. The trust plans to create a Local/Regional Public Safety Operator Advisory Committee, he said. The approval of any spectrum lease by the trust to local public-safety bodies should be based on active participation in a committee of this kind and on agreement to pay the expenses of a representative and to provide nominal funding for the trust to pay for the efforts, he said.
Local and regional public-safety operators should be responsible for moving out incumbent narrowband users in their proposed network service areas before they begin deploying, McEwen wrote in the ex parte filing. So operators should state their approaches on relocation and related expenses of any existing narrowband voice systems, he said in the interview. But operators should be allowed to seek reimbursement for any payments to move users, he said.
Priority access to a public-private network by public- safety personnel should be run locally under national guidelines to be developed by the trust with the Operator Advisory Committee, McEwen said. The task force report asked the FCC to allow commercial roaming throughout a proposed shared nationwide public private network, including the local systems.
The 700 MHz public safety broadband licensee urged the FCC to allow it to use Long Term Evolution as the technology standard for the 700 MHz nationwide public safety broadband network and to require the use of the standard in the lease agreements with public-safety waiver applicants, McEwen wrote. Waiver filers seek to build their own 700 MHz networks now licensed to the trust.
The trust supports plans to create a demonstration broadband communications network for emergency services agencies using some spectrum freed up by the DTV transition, McEwen said. The plans, developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the NTIA, aim for a unified broadband system that would allow public safety agencies to communicate with nationwide roaming and enhanced interoperability. The demonstration network is in early planning and is expected to go live in mid-2010, NTIA and NIST said.