FCC Asks for Advice on Making Market for Public Safety Equipment More Competitive
The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment on the state of competition in the market for public safety equipment and devices. The bureau put out a notice Thursday after House Commerce Committee leaders sent commission Chairman Julius Genachowski a letter asking about competition in the sector and the use of proprietary standards by makers of public safety equipment. Comments are due Sept. 20, replies Oct. 18.
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"Generally, increased competition creates more flexibility and choices for consumers, and in this case public safety,” said bureau spokesman Robert Kenny. “We want to ensure that all public safety communications, including the nationwide public safety broadband network and devices used on the network, are interoperable. We envision America’s first responders having access to and the use of cutting-edge mobile broadband devices that can communicate with each other across the country and are available to them at commercially competitive prices."
Among the questions that the notice poses are what factors have shaped competition in the public safety communications market and whether there are barriers to additional manufacturers’ supplying narrowband radios and other equipment. Only a few suppliers, led by Motorola, have manufactured first responder radios for the U.S. market. Concerning broadband, the notice asks: “How would additional competition in the provision of public safety communications equipment improve narrowband or broadband interoperability? Conversely, what impact does the current state of competition in the provision of public safety communications equipment and devices have on interoperability?” The notice asks what steps could the FCC take to promote competition.
Meanwhile, representatives of Alcatel-Lucent, Motorola, Samsung, LGE, Ericsson and IP Wireless met with FCC Public Safety Bureau officials this week to discuss what’s needed to allow public safety agencies to build out early networks using 700 MHz spectrum, according to ex parte filings. The FCC has granted waivers to 21 state and local government groups to use the spectrum before a national interoperable network launches in the band. Officials of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Idaho National Labs joined the discussions. “We believe that there is a critical need to validate interoperability through initial and ongoing interoperability testing,” Alcatel said in a filing. “Commercial service providers have already done and will continue to do extensive interoperability testing of LTE equipment in multi-vendor networks. To ensure interoperability for public safety LTE networks, it is essential that public safety leverage this commercial testing as much as possible.”
"Ensuring interoperability among the many regional networks is essential to the success of providing nationwide public safety broadband services,” Motorola said. “While providing service to roaming Public Safety responders is key for all networks, each local and regional public safety broadband network will have different challenges and requirements that will demand at least some level of customization.”